UCSB  LIBRARY 


ESSAYS 

Oy  THE  ., 

AS  EXEMPLIFIED 

IN  ITS 

DEADLY  HOSTILITY 

ft 

TO  THE 

BAXK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

AND  m  THE 

ODIOUS   CALUMNIES 
EMPLOYED  FOR  ITS  DESTRUCTION. 

BY    ARISTIDES. 


"  What  profits  all  the  ploughman's  skill  and  pain. 
If  tares  and  brambles  choke  the  rising  grain' 
What  force  have  laws  to  make  the  people  blest, 
If  factious  spirits  lio  the  Slate  molestl" 


PHILJIDELPHM.- 

JESFEB   HABDINO,    nilNTEtt. 

1835 


DEDICATION. 

i  inscribe 

these  essays  to  the  honest  and  just  men  op  the 

Republic,  by  whatever  party  name 

designated.  to  others,  they 

will,  of  course,  be  as 

"sounding  brass,  or  tinkling  cymbal." 

ARISTIDES. 


PREFACE. 


I  HAVE  a  few  words  to  say  to  the  reader  before  he  begins 
to  read  these  essays.  He  will  find  in  them,  some  severity,  but 
no  rancour;  a  free  handling  of  the  parties,  but  no  malice. 
My  position  will  be  found  to  resemble  that  of  the  surgeon. 
He  probes  the  ulcer — exposes  its  corroded  and  corroding 
parts,  for  the  purpose  of  seperating  them  from  the  sound  and 
healthful.     His  object  is  sometimes  two-fold; 

1st.  To  save  the  subject. 

2d.  To  prevent  the  spreading  of  the  leproits-like  disease, 
and  thereby  rescue  society  from  its  distressing  effects,  I  have 
not  much  hope  of  succeeding  under  the  first  similitude.  My 
main  object  is,  I  confess,  to  save  the  yet  uncontaminated  citi- 
zens of  the  country  from  the  fatal  effects  of  following  the 
example  set  by  those  actors,  whose  conduct  I  have  exposed. 
1  hold  it  to  be  as  dangerous  to  our  liberty,  as  is  the  cholera 
to  human  life.  I  would,  it  is  true,  delight  in  restoring  them, 
as  individuals,  to  those  honourable  political  relations,  which 
all  just  men  maintain,  towards  our  common  country, — who 
prefer  that  country,  and  its  prosperity,  to  party — and  the 
''general  welfare,"  to  their  individual  preferment.  I  sincerely 
wish  they  would  abandon  their  reckless  course,  turn  their 
backs  upon  the  arch-enemy  of  all  that  is  dear  to  the  Republic 
and  its  hopes,  and  practice  those  lessons  which  were  be- 
queathed to  us  by  the  Father  of  his  Country.  I  have,  how- 
ever, little  hope. 

If  these  men  suffer  by  the  exposure  which  these  essays 
make  of  their  conduct,  they  will  bear  in  mind  that  no  one  is 
to  blame  for  it  but  themselves.  They  are  supposed  to  be 
free  agents.  When  they  consented  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  loathsome  cause  of  their  present  condition,  they  did  it 
voluntarily.    They  doubtless  weighed  well  the  ignominy 


IV 

that  they  were  destined  to  endure,  and  balanced  against  it 
the  "rewards^'  which  prompted  them  to  the  sacrifice.  They 
preferred  to  endure  the  former,  rather  than  forego  the  latter. 
I  wash  my  hands  of  having,  directly  or  indirectly,  encouraged 
one  of  them  to  place  himself  in  the  condition  in  which  the 
reader  will  find  them  all.  Let  me,  therefore,  not  be  blamed. 
These  men  are  alone  responsible.  They  chose  their  present 
condition,  (humiliating  enough,  in  all  conscience,)  and  are 
entitled  to  all  the  honour  it  confers,  and  to  all  the  disgrace. 

The  reader  is  now  respectfully  requested  to  pass  on,  and  look 
at  the  picture  which  the  following  essays  will  expose  to  his 
view;  and  if,  after  he  shall  have  surveyed  the  -whole  qfity  he 
does  not  turn  from  it  in  deep  sorrow  for  his  country,  he  may 
take  my  word  for  it  that  his  moral  vision  is  defective,  and  all 
is  not  right  with  himself. 

ARISTIDES 


EISSATIS 


No.  1. 

I  DESiGX  under  this  head,  to  make  an  appeal  to  the  intel- 
ligent and  candid  of  all  parties,  on  that  which  may,  perhaps, 
seem  to  many,  at  the  first  blush,  as  not  concerning  any  of 
them.  But  let  no  man,  or  corporation,  pass  the  subject  over 
lightly,  or  think,  because  calumny  has  carried  its  end  in  pro- 
ducing the  downfal  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  (or  ra- 
ther in  defeating  its  recharter^)  that  therefore  the  truths 
touching  this  whole  business,  is  not  to  be  regarded,  and  its 
solemn  injunctions  noted.  The  very  success  of  a  calumny  is 
the  very  reason  why  it  should  be  exposed,  and  why  those  who 
have  been  its  victims  should  be  vindicated.  The  failure  of 
calumny  to  carry  its  ends,  might  be  a  reason  why  it  should 
not  be  regarded ;  but  its  success  should  rouse  every  man, 
(and  it  will  have  this  effect  on  every  honourable  man) 
who  has  been  misled  by  it,  to  vindicate  his  own  conduct  when 
acting  under  its  influence,  by  hurling  back  upon  its  authors 
such  a  judgment  of  condemnation  as  will  make  them  pause 
at  least,  before  they  venture  again  thus  wilfully  to  delude, 
and  thus  murderously  to  destroy. 

Is  it  said  by  the  designing  and  wicked,  that  a  citizen  is  ra- 
bid— and  shall  men  who  have  confidence  in  the  declaration, 
seize  and  confine  the  victim,  and  shut  him  out  from  light  and 
liberty,  and  there  keep  him  until  he  dies ;  and  shall  it  be 
proven  afterwards,  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties,  that  the 
charge  was  groundless,  and  that  it  was  made  for  personal  or 
vindictive  ends,  or  both,  and  then  because  the  man  is  dead. 


shall  it  be  permitted  to  those  who  thus  wickedly  destroyed 
him,  to  go,  not  only  unpunished,  but  unrebuked?  Yet  this  is 
the  doctrine  of  those  who  say,  because  the  Bank  has  been  run 
down  by  calumny,  there  is  no  need  of  exposing  that  calumny, 
or  of  vindicating  its  reputation  from  the  foul,  but  too  suc- 
cessful attacks  of  its  enemies;  and  its  officers  from  the  no  less 
foul  designs  upon  their  "  good  name." 

If  there  ever  has  been  an  unholy  war  waged,  and  with  the 
iinholiest  of  purposes,  and  prosecuted  with  a  spirit  diabolical  and 
fiend-like,  it  has  been  the  war  waged  by  Jacksonism  against 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  It  will  be  my  business  to 
demonstrate  this.  All  that  relates  to  this  subject,  is  now 
raatter  of  history.  Facts  must  now  speak.  The  days  of 
trick,  and  deception,  and  chicanery,  are  gone  by.  The  Bank, 
so  long  and  so  shamefully  abused,  may  be  considered  as  out 
of  the  question.  It  is  with  the  living,  vindictive  actors,  the 
public  have  to  do.  From  Levi  Woodbury,  down  to  the  spies^ 
the  subject  may  now  be  handled  without  creating  suspicion 
that  selfishness  or  personal  or  political  objects  govern.  The 
heartless  politician,  the  fool  and  the  knave,  must  now  come  in 
for  their  share  of  glory  and  of  shame.  The  curtain  will  be 
lifted.  Let  those  who  have  played  their  parts,  take  the  con- 
ge;quences.  Infamous  deeds  should  be  recorded,  and  their 
authors  held  up  to  merited  public  execration  and  contempt. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  2. 

• 
The  election  of  General  Jacksotvto  the  Presidency  opened 
a  new,  and,  as  the  results  have  demonstrated,  ti  fearful  era, 
in  the  history  of  the  Government.  His  utter  incompetency 
for  the  place,  his  habits,  his  passions — all  conspired  to  make 
him  any  thing  else  than  a  suitable  person  to  fill  an  office  so 
high,  so  dignified,  and  so  responsible.  His  very  presence  in 
that  lofty  place,  operated  as  the  signal  for  the  profligate  of 
all  parties  to  stir  the  elements  of  discord.  The  unprincipled 
of  every  party  were  seen  wending  their  way  to  the  presence 


chamber,  there  to  offer  the  incense  of  their  flattery,  and  to 
ask  for  the  "  rewards"  for  which  they  had  been  struggling; 
whilst  others,  just  escaped  from  the  throes  of  sudden  conver- 
sions, knelt  also  before  the  throne,  to  receive  from  the  hands 
of  him  who  sat  upon  it,  some  crumbs  of  favour.  Very  soon 
after,  the  proclamation  was  formally  issued,  that  "  General 
Jackson  will  reward  his  friends,  and  punish  his  e?iemies." 
He  proceeded  as  the  world  knows,  to  fulfil  this  proclamation, 
to  the  letter. 

Here,  then,  for  the  first  time  in  this  free  country,  was  wit- 
nessed the  alarming  spectacle  of  an  open  perversion  of  all  that 
had  been  held  sacred  in  the  doctrines  of  republicanism.  An 
ukase  had  been  issued;  and  for  the  constitutional  exercise  of 
the  freedom  of  opinion,  and  the  exercise  of  the  elective  fran- 
chise, the  great  body  of  the  freemen  of  America,  including 
the  most  wise,  and  the  most  virtuous,  were  proscribed/  Such 
a  perversion  of  Executive  authority,  and  such  a  prostration , 
of  all  that  was  just  and  right,  whilst  it  alarmed  the  friends  of 
constitutional  liberty,  served  but  to  rally  the  wicked,  the  pro- 
fligate, and  the  irresponsible  of  every  party.  They  beheld  in 
Andrew  Jackson,  the  very  elements  upon  which  alone  they 
could  operate,  when  it  was  resolved  by  the  leaders  to  employ 
them,  and  to  use  him,  to  perpetuate  "the parti/,"  and  secure 
to  themselves  the  honours  and  emoluments  of  office. 

High-handed  and  oppressive  as  were  those  measures,  it  had 
not  yet  entered  into  the  head  of  even  the  most  abandoned  of 
the  party,  to  conceive  that  such  outrages  would  be  committed 
as  followed.  Not  a  man  of  them  dreamed,  that,  standing 
upon  Executive  ground.  General  Jackson  would  order  a  solemn 
compact  between  the  United  States  and  a  corporation  to  be 
violated ;  seize  the  public  treasure,  wrest  it  from  the  place 
where  the  laws  had  assigned  it;  and  that  too,  on  his  ow?i  "re- 
sponsibility;" — and  that  he  would  sanction  the  use  of  the 
public  money,  as  has  been  done  through  the  Post  Office,  and 
employ  the  patronage  and  power  of  the  other  departments  of 
the  Government  to /jerpe/wa/c  "  the  party."  Nothing*  of  all 
this  was  thought  possible.  Reckless  as  the  leaders  were  even 
then,  such  high-handed  measures,  if  mentioned,  would  have 
made  them  tremble. 


8 

The  question,  at  the  period  of  which  I  am  writing,  was — 
"  where  shall  we  realize  the  monied power,  to  secure  to  our- 
selves and  our  successors,  the  places  we  now  occupy,  and  to 
our  party  \is  perpetuation?^^  As  was  natural,  perhaps,  the 
eyes  of  the  leaders  were  turned  to  OC/^  the  Bank  of  the 
United  States.  It  was  the  great  monied  power  of  the  Union. 
Its  branches  were  in  many  of  the  States.  Its  five  hundred 
officers  were  looked  upon  as  having  power  and  influence. 
These  it  was  thought  indispensable  to  secure.  Already  pos- 
sessed of  the  patronage  of  the  Government,  which,  it  was  set- 
tled, should  be  faithfully  employed  in  behalf  of  "  the  party  ^^ 
it  remained  only  to  secure  the  Bank,  when  all  would  be  well. 
How  to  accomplish  this,  was  the  question.  It  was  not  long 
before  an  opening  presented  itself.  The  Branch  at  Ports- 
mouth, in  New  Hampshire,  "  had  originally  the  misfortune  to 
have  at  its  head  a  Mr.  Cutts,  who  ended  by  defrauding  the 
United  States  of  upwards  of  §20,000  of  the  pension  fund, 
which  the  Bank  was  obliged  to  replace;  and  in  other  respects 
its  affairs  had  become  so  deranged,  as  that  "  of  S460,000  of 
loans,  ^148,000  was  thrown  under  protest."  It  was  at  this 
period  that  "  the  President,  a  worthy  man,  but  not  calculated 
for  such  a  state  of  things,  resigned  his  place." 

Now,  who  would  have  thought  that  the  appointment  of  a 
successor,  and  such  a  man,  too,  as  Jeremiah  Mason,  would  be 
seized  upon  as  &  pretext  for  feeling  how  far  the  party  might 
calculate  upon  the  co-operation  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States  in  confirming  its  power  and  perpetuating  its  existence? 
I  venture  to  say,  that,  except  with  the  actors  in  this  nefarious 
scheme,  such  a  thought  would  have  occurred  to  no  man. 

It  was  seen  that,  in  righting  the  condition  of  the  Bank,  Mr. 
Mason  would  have,  of  necessity,  to  act  with  decision  and  firm- 
ness. In  doing  this,  he  must,  as  President  of  the  Board,  oc- 
cupy a  foremost  place  in  all  proceedings  which  were  required 
to  reinstate  the  Bank  in  its  former  prosperous  condition.  This 
would  of  course  involve  an  obligation  to  move  upon  the  par- 
ties to -the  $112,000  then  under  protest,  and  others,  perhaps, 
beside  these,  might  have  felt,  incidentally,  this  new  but  ne- 
cessary action  for  the  recovery  and  preservation  of  the  funds 
of  the  Bank.    Here,  then,  was  the  field  in  which  the  seeds 


9 

for  a  large  crop  of  dissatisfaction  and  personal  hostility  were 
sown.  Into  this  field,  and  when  the  crop  ripened,  and  after 
a  full  examination  of  its  condition,  Levi  Woodbury  and  Isaac 
Hill,  choice  spirits  of  *'  the  party,"  entered.  Now  was  the 
moment.  The  administration  at  Washington  was  thought  to 
be  firmly  settled — and  whatever  it  might  indicate  to  the  Bank 
as  its  wish,  it  was  hoped  would  be  cheerfully  responded  to. 
It  was  necessary,  at  all  hazards,  to  make  4he  trial.  And 
now,  reader,  I  am  going  to  disclose  an  act  on  the  part  of 
Woodbury,  which  I  will  call  the  first  embodied  calumny 
that  "  the  party"  hurled  at  the  Bank;  a  calumny  in  the  for- 
mation of  which  there  is  as  much  coward  duplicity  and  pro- 
fligacy, and  personal  degradation,  as  has  ever  attached  to  any 
man  of  the  party  since. 

Availing  themselves  of  the  state  of  things  as  they  existed 
between  the  Bank  and  its  dealers,  Woodbury  and  Hill  pro- 
cured (as  it  was  easy  for  them  to  do  under  such  circumstances,) 
the  signatures  of  some  forty  or  fifty  persons  to  a  petition  for 
the  removal  of  Mr.  Mason;  and  for  the  appointment  oi such 
a  board  as  the  petition  named.  But  this  was  not  all.  Mr. 
Woodbury  took  upon  himself  to  adz. particular  part,  which, 
as  long  as  he  lives,  will  operate  to  degrade  him  in  the  estima- 
tion of  every  honest  man ;  and  will  have  the  further  effect  to 
tarnish  his  honour  in  the  view  of  posterity.  What  was  that 
act?  To  write,  I  answer,  two  letters — one  to  Mr.  Biddle, 
President  of  the  United  States  Bank,  in  which  he  presents 
himself  as  brooding,  most  disinterestedly  over  the  interests 
(excluding  political  considerations  from  the  subject,)  of  that 
institution;  whilst,  perhaps  with  the  same  pen,  he  wrote  a 
''^confidential'^  letter  to  Mr.  Ingham,  then  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  in  which  he  says:  "The  new  President  of  the  Bank 
at  this  place,  (Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,)  Jeremiah  Ma- 
son, is  a  particular  friend  of  Mr.  Webster ;  and  his  (jf;J*  poli- 
tical CHARACTER  is  doubtlcss  wcll  kuown  to  you.  Mr.  Web- 
ster is  supposed  to  have  had  much  agency,"  &c.  &c.  Here, 
then,  in  this  "  confidential"  letter  to  Mr.  Ingham,  the  re- 
moval of  Mr.  Mason  is  placed,  by  the  writer,  on  political 
grounds;  whilst,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Biddle,  he  places  it  upon 

2 


10 

grounds  wholly  different,  and  says,  "  the  charges  against  him 
Mr.  Mason)  originated  exclusively  with  his  political  friends! 
I  will,  in  my  next,  (that  there  may  be  no«^avil  on  this  sub- 
ject,) publish  extracts  from  both  these  letters;  and  from  them 
further  illustrate  the  design  oi^Hhe  jmrty^'  which  was  to  see 
how  far  the  Bank  might  be  counted  on  as  a  subservient  tovl 
in  the  hands  of  those  men,  who  sought  its  agency  to  promote^ 
their  own  selfish  <ind  party  ends.  I  have  said  "  the  curtail 
shall  be  lifted,"  and  it  shall  be.  '/^fi 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  3. 

I  have  shown  what  encouraged  the  profligate  of  all  parties 
to  rally  around  Gen.  Jackson ;  and  also  their  design  in  doing 
so.     They  derived  their  encouragement  from  their  knowledge 
that  Gen.  Jackson  had  no  one  qualification  for  the  office  to 
which  he  had  been  elected,  and  that  his  prejudices  and  pas- 
sions niade  him  the  fit  instrument  for  their  stratagems  and 
wiles.     Having  secured  his  mandate,  proscribing  all  except 
members  of  '*  the  pariy^''''  and  become  possessed  of  the  oflicesj 
and  the  press,  the  concluding  part  of  the  design  was  to  get 
possession  of  the  Bank.     This  could  be  done,  only,  as  the  public 
offices  had  beefh  secured — by  putting  tools,  into  them.     The 
Presidents,  Cashiers,  Directors,  &c.,  who  might  not  be  of  "the 
party,"  were  to  be  reformed  out,  and  Jackson  men  put  in; 
when  the  monied  power  would  be  united  with  the  patronage 
of  office  and  the  press,  and  then,  as  the  torrent]^sweeps  down 
all  before  it,  it  was  calculated  to  devastate  every  party,  and 
fragment  of  party,  save  "the  party."     That  was  to  be  made 
itivincible.     Hence,  as  I   have  shown  in  my  last  No.,  the 
movement  upon  the  New  Hampshire  Branch.     But  my  parti- 
cular business  in  this  No.  is  with  Mr.  Woodbury,  at  the  time 
United    States   Senator  fr<ira    New    Hampshire,  and  now 
{P^  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,     I  have  said,  that  this  poli- 
tical functionary  took  upon  himself  to  act  ^l  particular  part; 
and  that,  in  acting  that  part,  he  descended  from  the  level  of 


11 

honourable  conduct,  and  has  made  himself  hateful  to  all  h<f- 
nest  men.  I  proceed  to  furnish,  as  promised,  extracts  from 
his  double-faced  liters.  On  the  2/th  June,  1829,  Mr.  Wood- 
bury wrote  to  Mr.  Ingham,  then  Secretary  of  the  Treasury. 
From  that  letter  I  make  the  following  extracts : 

EXTRACT    1. 
"The  President  of  the  Branch  at  this  place,  (Portsmouth)  was  changed 
last  year,  and  the   salary  greatly  increased;  both  which  measures  have 
given  much  dissatisfaction,  as  well  to  the  public,  as  to  many  of  the  Stock- 
holders." 

REMARKS. 

Now,  here  are  two  distinct  falsehoods :  1st.  as  Mr.  Biddle, 
in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Ingham,  of  whom  he  received  the  "  confi- 
dential" letter  of  Mr.  Woodbury,  says ;  *'  The  President  of  the 
Bank  was  not  changed.  The  late  President,  Mr.  Shapley, 
voluntarily  declined  serving,  without  the  slightest  intimation 
of  a  wish  on  the  part  of  the  Bank,  and  solely,  as  he  stated,  *in 
consequence  of  his  advanced  age  and  decHning  health,  together 
with  his  close  confinement  to  the  office,  which  prevents  in  a 
great  measure,  his  attention  to  his  private  business.'  " 

2d.  "  The  Salary  of  the  new  President  was  not  increased 
a  dollar." 

Now  then,  let  any  candid  man,  who  is  in  his  senses,  answer, 
whether  he  believes  a  word  about  the  "dissatisfaction"  that 
Mr.  Woodbury  asserts  was  felt  by  the  public,  and  many  of  the 
stockholders?  At  least  on  account  of  the  onli/  reasons  he 
assigns  for  it. 

EXTRACT   2. 

**The  new  President,  Jeremiah  Mason,  is  a  particular  friend  of  Mr. 
Webster^  and  his  political  character  is  doubtless  well  known  to  you.  Mr. 
"Webster  is  supposed  to  have  had  much  agency  in  effecting  the  change." 

REMARKS. 

Here  is  a  clear  and  undisguised  avowal  that  the  writer 
aimed  to  displace  Mr.  Mason  by  a  political  onset.  It  was 
sufiicient  for  this  object  to  style  him  "  a  particular  friend  of 
Mr.  Webster."    That  was  the  drop  relied  upon  according  to 


12 

the  proclamation  of  Jackson,  which  promised  rewards  to  his 
friends,  and /JMnzsAmen/  to  his  enemies,  to  poison  the  subject 
of  the  onset,  and  secure  the  agency  of  the  administration  at 
Washington  in  procuring  from  the  mother  bank  an  order  for 
Mr.  Mason's  expulsion ; — meanwhile,  Mr.  Woodbury's  co- 
operating friend,  Isaac  Hill,  had  submitted  a  list  of  names  for 
Directors  and  a  President. 

It  so  happens  that  the  supposition  of  Mr.  Woodbury  that 
♦'  Mr.  Webster  had  much  agency  in  effecting  the  change," 
had  as  little  grounds  to  rest  upon  as  had  his  more  formal  de- 
clarations touching  the  changing  of  the  Presidency,  and  the 
increase  of  the  salary,  for  Mr.  Biddle  says : — "  Mr.  W  ebster 
had  not  the  slightest  agency  in  obtaining  for  him  (Mr.  Mason) 
the  appointment.  His  nomination  was  resolved  upon  without 
the  knowledge  either  of  Mr.  Webster  or  Mr.  Mason." 

After  remarking  further  upon  Mr.  Mason's  unfitness  for  the 
office  of  President,  Mr.  Woodbury  discloses  the  object,  and 
says: 

EXTRACT    3. 

"  If  any  relief  can  be  afforded  by  the  selection  of  different  directors 
for  this  Branch,  as  any  board  without  him  (Mason)  in  it,  or  with  him  not 
at  its  head  would  at  once  furnish  relief." 

REMARKS. 

No  doubt.  Put  out  capable  and  honest  men,  and  put  in 
Jackson  men,  and  the  sought  for  relief  would  have  been  in- 
stantly experienced,  since  that  much  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  according  to  the  plan  {and  which  I  assert  was 
matter  of  canvass  in  a  Jackson  caucus  at  Washington) 
TO  SECURE  THE  BANK,  would  have  bccomc  the  instrument  of 
*Hhe  party,'''*  And  this  was  the  object  of  this  letter  writer, 
and  in  his  conscience  he  knows  it ;  and  whether  that  monitor 
be  sufficiently  elastic,  pressed  upon  as  it  has  so  long  been,  and 
as  it  yet  is  by  the  lumber  of  party,  and  the  employment  it 
demands,  the  day  will  come  when  the  light  breaking  in  upon 
it  from  a  throne  higher  than  that  on  which  Gen.  Jackson  sits, 
will  give  to  it  life  and  energy,  and  a  power  to  its  sting  which 
no  mortal  agency  can  resist  or  destroy. 


13 

I  turn  now  to  the  correspondence  between  the  same  Levi. 
Woodbury,  and  upon  the  same  subject,  with  Mr.  Biddle.  On 
the  same  27th  day  of  June,  1829,  the  former  addr^sed  the 
latter  a  letter.  That  letter  is  not  published,  nor  have  I  seen 
it.  But  its  character  may  be  inferred  from  Mr.  Biddle's  reply 
to  Mr.  Ingham,  touching  Mr.  Woodbury's  "  confidential" 
letter  to  Mr.  Ingham.  He  says  : — "  I  am  surprised  that  Mr. 
Woodbury  should  consider  the  complaints  about  Mr.  Mason, 
as  having  the  remotest  connexion  with  politics,  and  I  am 
surprised  for  this  reason, — Mr.  Woodbury  wrote  to  you  on 
the  27th  June,  on  the  same  day  he  wrote  a  similar  letter 
to  m6.  I  answered,  thanking  him  for  his  suggestions,  and 
requesting  him  to  guide  my  inquiries,  by  stating  what  was 
the  nature  of  the  complaints  against  Mr.  Mason.  To  this 
he  replied  on  the  3d  instant,  and  that  letter  has  the  fol- 
lowing declaration : 

. "  From  the  confidential  character  of  this  letter,  it  is  due  in  perfect 

frankness  to  state,  that  the  President  of  the  present  board,  as  a  politician, 
is  not  very  acceptable  to  (C/*  the  majority  in  this  town  and  state^ 
0^  But,  it  is  at  the  same  time  notorious  that  the  charges  against  him,  in  his 
present  office,  originated  EXCLUSIVELY  WITH  HIS  FRIENDS." 

REMARKS. 

Nothing  is  more  clear,  than,  that  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Biddle, 
of  the  27th  June,  Mr.  Woodbury  spoke  not  a  word  about 
politics — except  perhaps  to  give  to  Mr.  Biddle  the  assurance 
that  politics  had  nothing  to  do  with  his  request  for  the  removal 
of  Mr.  Mason,  but  only  the  welfare  of  the  Bank,  and  this  he 
abundantly  confirms  in  his  letter  of  the  3d,  when  he  says,  "the 
charges  (of  course  all  of  them)  originated  exclusively  with 
Mr.  Mason'syrzenc?*.  They  could  not  therefore  have  been 
political.  So  then  we  find  Levi  Woodbury  in  one  letter  to 
"the  Government"  plying  political  reasons  for  the  removal  of 
Mr.  Mason ;  and  in  another  of  the  same  date,  to  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  Bank,  reasons  wholly  distinct,  and  relating  to  any 
thing  and  every  thing  but  politics ! ! ! 

And  now  let  me  ask  the  reader  what  he  thinks  of  a  man 
who  would  thus  employ  his  high  station  in  attempting  a  double 
injury  to  his  fellow,  by  making  him  first  obnoxious  to  a  domi- 


9^ 

.Bant  party,  on  political  grounds^  and  secondly  to  his  employes, 
on  grounds  relating  to  their  pecuniary  interests  1  Does  it  not 
approximate  most  fearfully  to  robbery?  And  to  robbery  of 
the  worst  kind — to  the  plundering  a  man  of  his  '■^good  name?'^ 

But  the  end  to  be  accomplished  by  these  nefarious  means, 
this  skulking  and  lurking  after  men's  character,  is  a  thousand 
fold  more  shocking  than  are  the  means  for  its  accomplishmeat. 
That  end  was  the  subversion  of  a  great  moneyed  institution, 
established  and  conducted  with  a  sole  view  to  the  fiscal  con- 
cerns of  the  country,  and  the  advancement  of  the  general 
prosperity,  and  a  converting  it  into  a  political  engine,  for  the 
purpose  of  making  permanent  the  very  worst  political  dy- 
nasty  that  has  ever  cursed  any  Country. 

I  shall  show  in  my  next  that  simultaneous  movements  were 
made  upon  two  other  Banks,  one  in  thQ  South  and  the  other 
in  the  West,  and  in  what  these  resulted : — After  that  I  will 
return  to  Mr.  Woodbury,  and  show  the  result  of  the  exami- 
nation into  Mr.  Mason's  conduct,  which  ought,  (but  did  not,) 
to  have  satisfied  the  most  impudent  defamer  under  the  sun. 

ARISTIDES. 


t3!  -^Q   4  v!oai  u 

:S;i  '     ■  .'>,-;!:  ,: 

'  When  Mr.  Ingham,  moved  upon  by  Woodbury,  as  I  have 
shown,  opened  his  correspondence  with  Mr.  Biddle,  in  1829, 
on  the  alleged  mal-administration  of  the  Branch  at  Ports- 
mouth, he  had  been  reached  by  charges  of  a  like  character, 
implicating  other  Branches.  '•  Complaints,"  he  says,  in  his 
letter  of  the  llth  July,  1829 — «  of  a  similar  nature  have  also 
been  suggested  from  other  places,  particularly  Kentucky  and 
Louisiana."  o, )  „ij» 

This  reveals  the  plot.  If  the  onset  had  been  confined  ie 
the  Branch  at  Portsmouth,  there  might  be  some  reason  to 
suppose  that  those  who  conducted  it  acted  under  honest, 
though  mistaken  views.  But  when  we  see  political  partisans, 
as  in  the  case  of  Woodbury,  plying  upon  the  administration 
similar  charges,  implicating  other  and  distant  Branches,  we  are 


15 

forced  into  the  conclusion,  *  that  the  attacks  wer«  not 
only  premeditated,  but  that  they  were  the  result  of  party 
deliberations,  an^  contemplated  the  same  wid,  which  was  t» 
put  the  dominant,  or  Jackson  party,  in  possession,  through  the 
ageiicy  o{  subservient  political  agents,  of  the  monied  power 
«f  the  coiflififty.  Or,  if  the  charges  implicating  those  branches 
were  not  conclusively  proved  to  be  false,  we  might  then  infer, 
that,  however  apparent  concerted  action  might  be  on  the  face 
of  the  proceedings,  that  still  those  who  made  the  charges 
might  have  done  so  under  erroneous  impressions.  But  when 
to  the  clear  evidence  of  a  concert  of  action,  is  superadded 
the  fact  that  the  charges  were  false,  there  is  no  escaping  the 
conclusion  that  they  were  made  for  political  eifect,  and  to 
bring  the  branches  attacked  into  subserviengy  to  the  party 
making  them.-^  i,'>vr', -^viX  ino\\\^Vr.\svs\  ^a-.>\A  :t\i  od)  sniiyjiiul 

I  will  state  from  document  No.  121,  published  by  Congress, 
the  charges  made  against  the  Kentucky  Branch.  The  Pre- 
sident, John  Tilford,  in  his  letter  to  Mr.  Biddle,  says : — "  I 
think  it  my  duty  to  inform  you,  that,  within  the  two  last  days, 
a  most  shameful  attempt  has  beea  made  to  induce  the  public 
to  believe  that  the  officers  of  this  Branch  were  influenced  by 
political  considerations  in  making  loans."       J'iJ  ovinj-ju  loa 

Here  we  have  it.  The  Woodbuiy  slang  all 'ovei*.  The 
directors,  in  a  statement  printed  in  the  Lexington  Observer, 
denied,  in  terms  the  most  unequivocal,  the  truth  of  the  charge. 
That  statement  says: — "  The  charge  attempted  to  be  made 
is,  that  the  board  required  that  the  politics  of  the  party  ap- 
plying (for  discount)  should  be  known  to  them,  and.  that  if  they 
belonged  to  the  Jackson  party,  their  applications  were  rejected. 
In  this  state  of  the  case,  what  proof  can  be  oifered  to  the 
public  of  th€  utter  falsity  of  such  a  charge  1  Certainly  the 
best  evidence  is  the  testimony  of  those  members  of  the  board 
who  are  themselves  supporters  of  the  present  {Jackson)  ad- 
ministrationJ'' — An  array  of  names,  sufficient  to  put  dowfi 
any  calumny,  is  published — and  among  these  are  letters  from 
Mr.  Robert  J.  Ward,  Mr.  Joseph  Bruen,  and  Mr.  Benjamin 
Taylor,  who  are  known,  says  the  statement,  as  supporters  cf 
"General  Jackson.  <i  oA'^  ^v^'^"  ^'^ ' 


16 

Mr.  Ward  says : — "  I  have  been  a  director  during  the 
present  year,  and  have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  that  I  have 
never  known  an  instance  where  the  poUticaJi  opinions  of  the 
applicant  had  the  remotest  influence  upon  the  directory,  in 
granting,  or  refusing  a  loan.  On  the  contrary,  I  have  believed, 
and  always  so  stated,  that  th«  board  of  directors  were  entirely 
impartial,  and  that  loans  were  invariably  made,  or  refused, 
entirely  with  reference  to  the  responsibility  of  the  persons 
applying,  and  the  situation  of  the  Bank  at  the  time,  and 
without  any  reference  tohatever  to  the  political  opinions  of 
the  applicants." 

Mr.  Taylor  says : — ''The  imputation  is  utterly  without 
foundation."  He  had  been  a  punctual  attendant  at  the 
board  for  nearly  three  years.  There  had  been  "no  occurrence 
furnishing  the  slightest  foundation  for  such  charge."  These 
extracts  may  suffice.  They  could  be  multiplied.  The  calumny 
was  confronted  and  exposed  by  members  of  the  Jackson  party, 
who  were  too  honest  to  permit  a  slander  so  foul  to  go  unre- 
buked  and  unpunished.  The  man  who  acted  the  Woodbury 
of  the  West  in  this  plot,  is  named  David  Thomas.  I  think 
it  proper  not  to  shroud  the  gloi  y  of  such  a  calumniciting  agency, 
nor  deprive  those  who  seek  to  revel  in  its  magnificence  of  any 
of  the  benefits  it  may  confer  on  them. 

A  like  onset  was  made  on  the  Louisiana  Branch. — The 
Cashier  happened  to  be,  at  the  time  it  was  put  in  circulation, 
in  Philadelphia.  He  repaired  to  Washington,  and  met  the 
foul  imputators  face  to  face.  Wm.  B.  Lewis  can  bear  tes- 
timony, if  he  will,  to  the  flat  denial  of  their  truth,  and  to  the 
frank  and  full  offers  made  by  the  Cashier  to  disclose  the  entire 
transactions  of  the  Bank,  to  any  agent  that  might  be  sent, 
and  to  undergo  any  examination  that  it  might  be  thought 
proper  to  order.  And  so  can  General  Jackson  himself.  The 
charges  were  requested  of  this  functionary  to  be  embodied, 
the  specifications  to  be  made,  but  no — nothing  of  the  sort  was 
granted.  The  affair  was  dropt,  and  the  calumniating  Wood- 
bury of  the  South,  whoever  he  was,  lies  secreted,  perhaps  in 
executive  confidence,  without  the  honour  of  a  public  expo- 
6ure;  or  perhaps  he  may,  like  Woodbury,   be  basking  in  the 


17 

rays  of  Presidential  favour,  as  a  "reward^*  for  his  good  inten' 
tions  to  fasten  a  calumny  on  the  Branch  Bank  at  New  Orleans. 

I  will  conclude  this  No.  by  a  few  remarks  on  the  issue  of 
the  trial  between  truth  and  falsehood,  in  the  Woodbury  case. 
Mr.  Biddle,  accompanied  by  one  of  the  officers  of  the  Bank, 
repaired  to  Portsmouth.  Immediately  on  their  arrival,  a 
note  was  addressed  to  each  of  the  persons  who  signed  Isaac 
Hill's  paper,  implicating  Mr.  Mason  and  the  Bank,  in  which 
the  object  of  the  visit  was  stated,  accompanied  by  a  request 
that  the  charges,  &c.  might  be  made,  with  a  view  to  their 
examination,  &c.  There  were  two  petitions  addressed  to  the 
United  States  Bank.  To  convey  the  idea  that  they  were  not 
the  work  of  one  mind,  one  was  addressed  "to  the  Directors  of 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States,"  and  the  other  "to  the  Presi- 
dent and  Directors  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  at  Phi- 
ladelphia. "  The  first  dealt  in  implications  of  "the  course  pur- 
sued" by  the  Bank,  and  remonstrated  against  the  reappoint- 
ment of  Mr.  Mason,  and  asked  that  the  concerns  of  the  Branch 
might  be  in  future  placed  under  the  immediate  control  of 
officers  well  acquainted  with  the  business  and  character  of 
the  trading  community,  and  well  disposed  to  manage  the  af- 
fairs of  the  Branch  with  impartiality^  &c.  &c.  &.c. 

The  other  charged  the  Branch  with  similar  defections  from 
a  right  course  of  action,  and  making  a  sweeping  hit  at  "Mc 
head  of  the  board,"  passed  off  into  a  most  generous  recom- 
mendation of  suitable  persons,  out  of  whom  to  form  the  di- 
rection, &c. 

The  first  list  was  signed  by  fifty-eight  names,  and  the  last 
by  fifty-seven  names.  To  each  of  these  co-operators  of  the 
Woodbury  plot,  Mr.  Biddle  addressed  a  note,  as  I  have  stated. 
Now,  if  these  men  were  honest,  and  knew  what  they  stated 
to  be  true,  and  were  really  in  earnest  to  relieve  the  commu- 
nity of  Portsmouth,  from  the  evils  charged,  as  proceeding  from 
the  mal-administration  of  the  Bank,  is  it  not  reasonable  to 
suppose  they  would,  when  thus  invited,  and  when  the  oppor- 
tunity was  thus  given  them  to  substantiate  their  charges,  come 
forward,  and  make  them?  Nay,  was  it  not  their  duty,  and  did 
not  personal  honour  demand  it?     Well,  reader,  not  one  of 

3 


18 

them  responded,  or  under  any  forms  came  forward  to  make 
the  charges  for  examination,  which  they  had  been  so  free  to 
subscribe  to  on  the  papers  mentioned,  in  obedience  to  Wood- 
bury's schemes,  and  Isaac  Hill's  request. 

But  if  these  men,  one  and  all,  should  thus  indirectly  com- 
mit themselves  of  calumniating  the  Branch  and  its  President, 
it  were  hardly  to  be  supposed  that  a  Senator  of  the  United 
States,  and  an  Ex-Governor,  would  flinch  from  so  high  an  ob- 
ligation, and  skulk  in  shameful  and  degraded  cowardice  from 
the  duty  he  had  imposed  on  himself.  £nt  he  did  so — yes 
reader,  even  Woodbury,  who  had  essayed  to  move  the  powers 
at  Washington,  and  -did  move  them  by  enlisting  them  in  a 
crusade  against  the  President  of  the  Bank  at  Portsmouth,  and 
to  bring  down  upon  him  the  strong  arm  of  the  Mother  Bank 
in  Philadelphia,  skulked  from  the  proflered  opportunity  of 
making  good  his  charges,  and  now  stands  out  before  the  eyes 
of  the  world  as  a  blighted  and  blasted  recreant,  to  warn  in 
future  times  the  unprincipled  and  reckless,  who  would,  like 
him,  to  serve  his  party,  and  aggrandize  himself,  stab  an  ho- 
nourable citizen  to  the  heart,  and  turn  the  tide  of  a  monied 
benefit,  which  like  the  waters  of  the  Nile,  contribute  to  make 
every  thing  fruitful,,  into  poisoned  waters,  refreshing,  only  to 
himself  and  his  friends.  ARISTIDES. 


No.  5. 

I  have  developed  iheplot  of  the  dominant  party,  on  which 
it  relied  to  possess  itself  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States. 
It  was,  as  has  been  shown,  by  the  agency  of  such  instruments 
as  Woodbury  and  Hill,  to  prize  out  the  officers  of  the  Bank, 
then  charged  with  its  management,  and  fill  their  places  with 
the  creatures  of  "  the  party :^  The  power  and  influence  of 
the  administration  were  relied  upon,  together  with  a  secret 
fawning  and  professions  in  favour  of  the  Bank,  conveyed  to  its 
President,  to  procure  that  to  be  done  in  regard  to  turning  out 
the  officers  of  the  Bank,  which  has  been  carried  so  extensively 
into  practice  with  the  officers* of  the  Government.    That  no 


19 

time  might  be  lost,  or  chance  given  to  the  Bank  to  make 
other  appointments,  "  suitable'^  names  were  handed  in  for  its 
adoption  by  "the  party.''''  It  needs  no  illustration  to  convince 
the  most  illiterate  of  the  fatal  issue  of  a  yielding,  on  the  part 
of  the  Bank,  to  such  a  course.  Nothing  put  a  stop  to  similar 
movements  upon  all  the  branches,  (for  a  Woodbury  could 
have  been  found  ready  to  blow  the  same  foul  breath  upon 
each  of  them,)  but  the  answer  of  the  President  of  the  mother 
Bank,  to  the  accusations  against  Mr.  Mason.  That  answer 
was  not  expected.  It  was  to  the  hopes  of  the  party  what  the 
blight  and  the  mildew  are  to  the  harvest ;  it  was  entirely  out 
of  the  line  of  action  of  "  the  Government ^^^  in  all  that  related 
to  those  within  its  power.  It  was  only  necessary  with  it  for 
some  party  tool,  or  some  office-seeker,  to  whisper  a  charge 
against  an  innocent  and  unsuspecting  incumbent  in  an  office 
of  the  Government,  when  out  he  went,  no  matter  how  ser- 
viceable he  was,  or  what  his  experience,  or  how  ruinous  it 
should  prove  to  himself  and  family;  and  if  he  dared  to  inquire 
into  the  cause,  or  lift  up  a  voice. of  complaint,  the  press, 
having  been  subsidized  for  the  purpose,  was  ready  to  blacl:en 
him  all  over,  and  hold  him  up  as  worthy,  not  only  of  just  such 
treatment,  but  of  the  hate  and  execration  of  society,  whilst  it 
lauded  every  new  appointment,  and  cursed  it  in  turn,  as  it  was 
found  necessary  to  make  the  change,  in  carrying  out  the  views 
of  "  the  party. ''^  "  Ever  and  anon,"  as  one  after  another  of 
those  victims  to  party  violence,  was  thrust  from  office,  the 
press  shouted,  **  the  work  goes  bravely  on  /" 

Scarcely  a  doubt  was  entertained  by  the  Woodburys  and 
Hills  of  the  party,  that  when  senators  and  comptrollers  should 
make  charges,  and  ask  for  the  removal  from  office  of  the 
officers  of  the  Banks,  especially  when  backed  by  the  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  under,  of  course,  the  sanction  of  the 
President  of  the  United  States,  the  request  for  the  removal 
would,  (as  was  the  practice  with  "  the  Government,")  be 
forthwith  complied  with,  and  an  order  issued  for  the  expulsion 
of  the  accused.  But  the  United  States  Bank  did  not  chime 
in  with  this  practice.  The  President  and  Directors  acted  not 
upon  the  principles  of  this  new  and  reckless  party,  but  on  the 


so 

principle  of  eternal  justice.  "  This  communication,  (Wood- 
bury's confidential  letter  to  Mr.  Ingham,)  says  Mr.  Biddle  in 
answer  to  Mr.  Ingham,  "  has  been  submitted  to  the  board  of 
directors,  who  will  not  fail  to  examine  the  allegations  of' 
Mr.  Woodbury,  and  should  they  appear  to  be  well  founded,  to 
apply  an  appropriate  corrective."  This  teas  worm-wood! 
It  was  precisely,  what  Woodbury  would  not  wish, — it  was 
moreover  what  he  did  not  expect, — and  doubtless  when  he 
heard  that  his  secret  influence,  conveyed  "  confidentially" 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  not  resulted  in  an 
immediate  dismissal  of  Mr.  Mason,  but  that  justice  was  to 
be  done  that  officer,  he  felt  all  the  misgivings  of  that  period 
when  he,  and  his  coadjutors  should  be  summoned  to  appear, 
and  give  in,  and  substantiate  their  charges,  and  trembled, 
caitiff-like,  in  view  of  the  disgrace  in  which  his  calumnies 
would  involve  him ;  and  mourned  in  spirit  over  a  failure  of 
his  deep-laid  scheme.  In  the  conclusion  of  the  same  letter, 
Mr.  Biddle  says,  "I  shall  be  happy  to  hear  from  you,  when- 
ever you  obtain  the  communications  from  Kentucky  and  Loui- 
simia,  which  shall  receive  immediate  attention." 

Not  a  whisper  from  those  quarters  was  heard  against  those 
Banks.  This  examining  process, — this  fixed  purpose  to  give 
the  accused  a  hearing,  silenced  the  political  blood  hounds, 
who  were  held  in  readinesss  to  seize  and  devour  those  whom 
their  keepers  knew  to  he  as  innocent  as  they  were  unsuspect- 
ing. 

The  plot  to  get  possession  of  the  Bank  by  the  same  process 
that  obtained  *'the  party"  such  uncontrolled  use  of  the  offices 
of  the  government,  was  exploded  by  that  single  letter  of 
Mr.  Biddle's,  which  indicated  that  whatever  might  be  the 
practice  of  "Me  government*'  in  killing  off  the  federal  officers, 
to  fill  their  places  with  mercenaries,  and  tools,  that  those  who 
assisted  in  administering  the  affairs  of  the  Bank,  should,  at 
least,  ha.\e  justice  done  them. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind,  that  although  the  same  move- 
ment that  was  made  on  the  New  Hampshire  Branch,  was,  as 
Mr.  Ingham's  letter  of  11th  July,  1829,  discloses,  to  be  made 
also  upon  "other  branches,"  particularly  those  in  Kentucky 


21 

and  Louisiana,  yet  it  was  not  made  until  1832 — and  then,  it 
was  made,  not  in  aid  of  the  plan  to  get  possession  of  the 
Bank,  as  at  first  designed,  by  a  change  of  officers;  but  in  aid 
of  the  elections!  The  same  foul  calumny  was  employed,  it 
is  true,  but  for  another  object. 

I  have  now  arrived  at  that  point  in  the  history  of  this 
shocking  business,  in  which  a  new  movement  upon  the  Bank 
was  to  be  made.  The  first  was,  as  I  have  shown,  to  get 
possession  of  the  Bank — but  the  Bank  not  being  willing  to 
unite  with  "the  government^'  in  its  plan  of  proscription,  and 
all  hope  failing  from  that  quarter,  it  was  resolved  by  **  the 
party y''  to  \0^  DESTROY  THE  BANK ! ! ! 

And  what  was  it,  1  ask,  that  this  infuriated  and  profligate 
party  resolved  to  destroy  1  I  ask  this  question  only  in  the 
relation  which  the  noxv  doomed  institution  stood,  at  that 
very  time,  to  the  government  of  the  country — not  in  the 
relation  in  which  it  stood  to  merchants,  traders,  and  every 
class  of  society.  What  was  it,  I  ask?  A  useless  incum- 
brance ?  A  fungus  on  the  body  of  the  government  ?  Was 
it  a  restless,  distracting,  and  wicked  agent  ?  Did  it  opposcy 
or  co-operate  in  all  the  great  measures  which  lawfully  con- 
nected it  with  the  government?  Let  Mr.  Ingham,  then  Se- 
cretary of  the  Treasury,  and  the  fiscal  organ  of  the  govern- 
ment, and  a  member  of  "  the  party,"  and  a  disciple  of  the 
school  of  the  proscribers,  answer.  To  keep  up  a  proper 
connexion  between  the  extracts  I  am  going  to  give  from  Mr., 
Ingham's  correspondence  with  the  Bank,  I  will  take  a  para- 
graph from  the  letter  of  Mr.  Biddle  to  him,  in  which  Mr. 
Biddle  vindicates  the  character  of  the  Bank,  and  shows  not 
only  how  entirely  aloof  it  kept  itself  from  party  politics,  . 
but  how  sincerely  desirous  it  was  to  promote  the  just  policy 
of  the  administration,  and  further  its  views  in  whatever  related 
to  the  connexion  which  existed  between  the  government  on 
the  one  hand,  and  the  Bank  on  the  other.  Mr.  Biddle  says  to 
Mr.  Ingham,  in  his  letter  of  Sept.  15,  1829:  "The  earliest 
operation  of  the  treasury,  since  you  were  charged  with  it,  in 
which  the  Bank  had  any  share,  was  the  reimbursement  of  the 
public  debt  on  the  1st  July  last.     This  was  your  first  essay 


22 

in  the  department,  the  first  important  measure  of  the  new 
administration;  and  if  it  had  occasioned  any  inconvenience, 
or  any  pressure,  these  would  certainly  have  been  made  the 
pretext  of  great  reproach  against  yourself,  and  your  political 
associates  ;  and  undoubtedly  much  inconvenience  and  much 
pressure  would  have  been  felt,  if  the  Bank  had  not  laboured 
to  avert  them  with  a  promptness,  a  cordiality,  and  an  efficacy, 
rare  even  in  its  own  active  history.  Before  determining  on 
the  measure,  you  did  the  board  the  honour  to  consult  them, 
and  certainly  if  they  had  listened  to  considerations  merely 
pecuniary,  they  would  have  discouraged  it ;  if  they  had  desired 
to  shun  the  responsibility  of  an  operation,  of  which  the  result 
might  be  doubtful,  they  would  have  been  silent;  and,  if  it 
had  been  possible  for  them  to  feel  any  reluctance  to  aid  the 
new  administration,  it  would  have  been  sufficient  merely,  and 
irreproachably,  to  have  done  their  duty.  But  regarding  only 
what  they  considered  the  enlarged  interest  of  the  country,  and 
too  conscious  of  their  own  independence  to  fear  that  their 
zeal  in  the  public  service  should  be  mistaken  for  a  devotion 
to  the  public  servants,  they  at  once  assumed  all  responsibility, 
within  their  proper  sphere,  of  encouraging  the  operation,  and, 
from  the  commencement  to  the  termination,  watched  and 
guarded  its  progress  with  an  unwearied  attention,  which  the 
most  zealous  friend  of  the  administration  could  not  have  sur- 
passed." 

Was  any  of  this  denied  1  Hear  Mr.  Ingham,  in  his 
letter  of  the  6th  June  : — "I  am  fully  sensible  of  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  Bank  to  aflford  all  practicable  facility  to  the  fiscal 
operations  of  the  government,  and  the  oifers  contained  in  your 
letters,  with  that  view,  are  duly  appreciated."  On  the  19th 
June  he  again  writes  : — "  I  cannot  conclude  this  communica- 
tion without  expressing  the  satisfaction  of  the  department  at 
the  arrangements  which  the  Bank  has  made  for  effecting  these 
payments  in  a  manner  so  accommodating  to  the  treasury,  and 
so  little  embarrassing  to  the  community."  Again,  on  the  1 1th 
July  : — "  I  take  the  occasion  to  express  the  great  satisfaction 
of  the  Treasury  Department,  at  the  manner  in  which  the 
President  and  Directors  of  the  Parent  Bank  have  discharged 


23 

their  trusts  in  all  theirimmediate  relations  to  the  government, 
&c.,  and  especially  in  the  facilities  afforded  in  transferring  the 
funds  of  the  government,  and  in  the  preparation  for  the  heavy 
payment  of  the  public  debt  on  the  1st  instant,  wAic/i  has-been 
effected  by  means  of  the  prudent  arrangements  oj  your  board 
at  a  time  of  severe  depression  on  all  the  productive  employ^ 
ments  of  the  country,  ruithout  causing"  any  sensible  addition  to 
the  pressure,  or  even  visible  effect  upon  the  ordinary  operations 
of  the  State  Banks.*^ 

This,  reader,  was  the  fiscal  agent,  the  efficient,  effective, 
and  valuable  agent,  which  was  marked  as  the  prey  of  "the 
party,"  and  which  that  party  had  now  resolved,  at  all  hazards, 
to  destroy ! 

The  stir,  however,  had  not  yet  become  general. — True,  the 
refusal  to  expel  Mr.  Mason,  and  to  give  up  the  Portsmouth 
Branch  to  the  management  of  the  Woodburys  and  Hills  of 
that  quarter,  and  thus  open  the  way  for  like  changes  else- 
where, had  acted  upon  their  feelings  like  the  arrow  that 
wounds  the  Jackall.  The  bleeding  caterers  for  their  royal 
master  had  felt  the  sting,  and  rUn  back  into  his  presence,  but 
the  royal  beast  was  not  yet  himself  hit.  He  heard  their 
cries,  but  had  yet  to  learn  the  quarter  whence  the  arrow 
came,  and  to  know  the  hand  that  sent  it. 

A  period  soon  after  arrived,  however,  when  the  royal  beast, 
in  attempting  to  trespass  upon  a  domain  not  his  own,  received 
a  shaft  himself,  and  then,  and  not  till  then,  the  forests  resounded 
with  his  roar,  and  all  the  lesser,  congenial,  and  sympathising 
animals,  set  up  a  cry  ! 

This  particular  event,  with  some  of  its  subsequent  results, 
shall  form  the  subject  of  my  next. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  6. 

The  forest,  1  have  said,  was  not  made  to  roar  until  the  royal 
beast,  in  attempting  to  trespass  on  a  domain  not  his  own,  was 


24 

himself  hit.     I  drop  the  figure.     The  sequel  will  furnish  the 
illustration. 

Out  of  the  move  upon  the  New  Hampshire  Branch,  and 
from.  Woodbury's  ^'-confidential"  letter  to  Mr.  Ingham,  arose 
a  correspondence  between  the  latter,  as  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  and  Mr.  Biddle,  as  President  of  the  Bank,  of  un- 
usualinteresi.  It  were  worth  while,  did  the  limits  which 
are  forced  upon  these  essays,  by  newspaper  rules,  permit  it, 
to  give  this  correspondence  entire.  But  there  is  not  room. — 
The  defeat  of  Woodbury,  as  has  been  shown,  and  the  dis- 
grace in  which  he  and  his  coadjutors  became  involved  in  their 
skulking  from  the  charges  they  had  themselves  made,  and 
declining,  under  any  forms,  to  appear  against  the  accused, 
was  too  signal,  and  too  humiliating,  to  be  allowed  to  pass 
without  an  effort  by  the  party  to  screen  them  from  the  odium 
that  awaited  them.  The  charges  they  had  made,  "the  go- 
vernment" determined  to  respond  to,  and  by  thus  dividing  the 
odium,  relieve  its  faithful  servants  from  bearing  it  all. 

The  swell  that  had  been  made  to  roll  over  the  New  Hamp- 
shire Branch,  and  that  was  intended  to  engulph  Mr.  Mason, 
now  fell  back  upon  Washington,  and  gurgled  and  foamed,  and 
agitated  those  who  were  watching  from  that  common  centre 
its  final  eflfects  upon  those  whom  it  had  been  commissioned  to 
destroy.  This  gave  impulse  to  the  fiscal  organ  of  the  party, 
and  hence  the  continued  correspondence  referred  to  between 
Mr.  Ingham  and  Mr.  Biddle,  or  the  Treasury  and  the  Bank. 
It  was  Mr.  Ingham's  drift,  to  ply,  and  he  did  it  very  adroitly, 
implications,  against  the  Bank,  on  the  groundsof  its  po/zV/ca/ 
partialities.  This  was  the  flimsy  covering  which  it  was 
thought  proper  to  throw  over  the  shoulders  of  Woodbury  and 
his  coadjutors.  Mr.  Biddle  met,  and  denied  the  existence  of 
any  such  partialities  in  all  that  related  to  the  administration 
of  the  affairs  of  the  Bank.  In  his  letter  to  Mr.  Ingham,  of 
July  18,  1829,  he  says — "The  infusion  of  the  spirit  of  party 
into  every  thing  around  us,  causes  a  constant  effort  to  draw 
the  institution  within  the  sphere  of  what  we  called  politics. 

(j^WlTH  THESE  THE  BaNK  DISCLAIMS  ALL  CONNEXION." 

Here  was  the  time,  when,  if  "the  party"  had  proof  to  the 


25 

contrary,  it  should  have  produced  it.  That  it  had  not  a  par- 
ticle, has  been  demonstrated  in  its  refusal  to  appear  when 
invited,  to  make  good  its  charges  against  Mr.  Mason,  and  the 
New  Hampshire,  and  Kentucky,  and  Louisiana  Branches. — 
Had  Mr.  Biddle  overlooked  that  little  streamlet  that  mean- 
dered through  Mr.  Ingham's  correspondence,  and  which  it  was 
designed  to  increase,  and  widen,  and  deepen,  until  it  should 
"boil,  and  foam,  and  thunder  through,"  and  whelm,  and  over- 
whelm all  before  it,  the  struggle  might  not  have  begun  when 
it  did,  between  "the  Government"  upon  the  one  hand,  in  its 
attempt  to  crush  the  Bank;  and  the  Bank  on  the  other,  in  its 
efforts  to  save  itself,  and  preserve  the  country  from  the  fatal 
consequences  of  its  overthrow.  And  what  was  that  little 
streamlet?  A  disclosed  purpose,  I  answer,  on  the  part  of 
"the  party'''  to  exercise  over  the  affairs  of  the  Bank  a  con- 
trol which  neither  the  charter,  nor  any  law  gave  it  the 
right  to  exercise;  and  with  the  sole  view  of  driving  the  Bank 
into  a  compliance  with  its  mandates.  One  power  assumed 
about  this  time,  was  to  take  from  the  Bank  its  agency  in  the 
Pension  Department — And  Mr.  Eaton,  then  Secretary  of 
War,  always  ready  to  comply  with  the  orders  of  "the  party," 
and  with  his  characteristic  inefficiency,  did  actually  order  a 
transfer  of  the  Pension  Agency  from  the  Branch  Bank  at 
Portsmouth,  to  a  small  Bank  at  Concord,  of  which  before  Isaac 
Hill  went  to  Washington  to  act  as  Comptroller,  he  was  Pre- 
sident! This  was  a  movement,  as  has  been  since  decided,  and 
as  all  intelligent  men  knew  at  the  time,  in  violation  of  law! — 
It  was  got  up  by  Isaac  Hill  himself,  in  a  memorial  which  was 
circulated  among,  and  signed  by  "divers  of  his  political  parti- 
sans, and  {^3*  others  especially  interested  in  the  matter.^'' 

This  was  the  sort  of  game  that  these  bold  adventurers  had 
begun  to  play;  and  thus  was  it  attempted  to  overawe  'the 
Bank,  and  drive  it  from  the  position  in  which  the  laws  had 
placed  it,  when  Mr.  Biddle,  in  connexion  with  the  above  ex- 
tract from  his  letter  of  June  18th,  says:  "Belonging  to  the  na- 
tion, and  feeling  that  its  prosperity  and  its  usefulness  are  de- 
stroyed, the  moment  it  loses  its  independence}  the  Bank  owes 

4 


26 

allegiance  to  no  party ^  and  ^  WILL  SUBMIT  TO 
NONE." 

This  bold  and  honourable  independence  that  ought  to  have 
inspired  even  such  a  party  with  respect  for  the  Bank,  produc- 
ed a  directly  contrary  effect,  and  henceforth  the  resolve  to 
"destroy  it !"  And  why  destroy  it?  Not  because  it  had  not 
been  faithful  and  zealous,  as  I  have  shown  it  was,  in  co-oper- 
ating with,  and  aiding  the  new  administration,  but  because 
the  bank  refused  to  throw  itself  into  the  arms  of  the  party  to 
be  used  by  it  for  party  and  political  purposes.  Because  it 
chose  to  exercise  its  powers  within  the  circle  prescribed  by 
the  laws,  and  to  confine  its  action  to  its  own  legitimate  sphere. 
It  presented  itself  in  strong  contrast  with  the  officers  of  the 
federal  government.  These  had  all  yielded  up  their  just  ac- 
tion, and  losing  sight  of  the  object  of  their  origin,  had  fallen 
victims  to  the  withering  blight  of  that  baleful  influence  which 
Jacksonism  had  now  infused  into  them  all.  This  bright,  steady 
light  from  the  bank,  could  not  be  looked  upon  by  men  who 
preferred  and  acted  in  such  darkness.  The  great  plan  had 
been  devised — the  purpose  was  fixed — the  decree  had  gone 
forth,  that  the  "party"  would  possess  all,  (as  for  example  it 
has  the  post  office  department,)  or  if  any  should  dare  to  think 
or  act  for  themselves,  whether  corporations  or  individuals,  the 
decree  had  now  gone  forth  that  they  should /;emA.  The  en- 
tire history  of  the  party  is  fruitful  in  proofs  of  this.  From  the 
moment  Mr.  Biddle,  in  the  name  of  the  bank,  declared  that 
it  "would  not  submit,"  from  that  moment  the  whole  country, 
through  the  officers  and  expectants  of  the  new  administration, 
and  the  press,  was  put  in  motion,  and  the  welkin  was  made 
to  ring  with  the  shouts  of  "the  party,"  urging  it  upon  all  true 
Jriends,  to  aid  in  producing  the  downfal  of  the  bank. 

"TAe  Bank  ozves  allegiance  to  no  party ,  and  will  submit  to 
noncy^  was  to  the  party,  what  the  barbed  arrow  is  to  the  de- 
predating lion;  it  set  it  in  one  general  "  roar.''  How  lamb- 
like, when  unopposed,  is  the  monarch  of  the  Lybian  desert. 
How  comparatively  gentle,  when  he  is  permitted  to  trespass, 
unchafed,  upon  lands  tilled  with  spoils.   How  little  he  regards 


27 

the  limits  that  bound  his  domain,  if  he  perceive  inducements 
beyond.  So  with  this  new  party — this  Jacksonism,  that  had 
now  gone  forth,  regardless  of  the  Hmits  which  law  and  jus- 
tice had  set  to  its  movements.  To  be  checked  with — "  the 
bank  owes  allegiance  to  no  party,  and  roill  submit  to  none''' — 
and  at  the  moment  too  when  every  other  province  in  its  do- 
minion had  yielded,  [save  two*)  was  not  to  be  borne.  Hence 
the  war  cry — '■^do-wn  with  the  bankl''^  And  this  annunciation 
(^ 'will  submit  tonone^')  crossed  the  path  of  President  Jackson 
himself.  T7iis  was  the  shaft  in  the  side  of  the  royal  animal. 
He  had  been  taught  that  he  was  "monarch  of  all  he  survey  ed^^ 
— and  that  none  would  dare  to  "dispute  his  right."  He  be- 
lieved and  acted  on  the  principle.  No  wonder  the  effect  should 
be  what  it  was! 

Up  to  this  moment  the  bank  had  the  power  of  making  it- 
self as  great  a  favourite  with  the  party,  as  it  was  now  detest- 
ed by  it.  It  had  only  to  yield  and  turn  out  any  officer,  who 
might  be  marked  by  the  party,  as  not  suited  to  the  purposes 
of  the  party;  to  surrendeE  the  pension  and  other  treasures  that 
the  laws  and  individuals,  had  put  in  its  keeping,  and  in  all 
things  to  acquiesce  in  the  dictates  of  the  party,  to  have  been 
the  most  constitutional ,  the  most  useful — aye,  indispensable  es- 
tablishment in  the  Union.  Mr.  Biddle  would  have  been  hfted, 
by  the  press,  as  high  as  any  of  Gen.  Jackson's  favourites,  and 
shouted  to  as  one  of  the  most  wonderful  men  of  this  or  any 
other  age.  But,  alas,  for  him,  standing  as  his  position  requir- 
ed he  should,  in  the  front  rank  of  this  warfare,  and  being 
faithful  to  his  trust,  and  defending  it  ably  and  nobly,  he  was 
destined  to  receive  the  discharges  from  the  opposing  ranks,  of 
no  matter  what  material  composed,  and  to  be  in  very  spite, 
and  in  impotent  malice,  dubbed  "Nick  Biddle.''* 

I  shall  in  my  next  commence  the  calumnies  which  the  par- 
ty, from  this  moment  determined  to  invent,  and  send  among 
the  people,  by  the  agency  of  its  presses,  with  a  view  to  dis- 
affect  them  towards  the  bank,  and  thus  undermine  and  de- 
stroy it.     If,  before  I  have  done  with  these   men,  and   their 

•  The  Senate  and  Supreme  Court. 


28 

acts,  the  honest  of  every  party,  will  not  feel  disgust  at  their 
conduct  even  to  loathing,  I  mistake  the  quality  of  public  vir- 
tue, and  have  overrated  the  power  and  influence  of  truth. 

ARISTIDES. 


No..  7. 

I  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  a  short  review  of  the  right 
set  up  by  **the  party"  to  exercise  an  agency  over  the  affairs 
of  the  Bank,  other  than  that  which  is*  provided  for  by  law. 
This  is  what  I  have  denominated  "Me  little  streamhf  that 
the  Bank  detected  running  through  Mr.  Ingham's  correspon- 
dence. 

"After,"  says  Mr.  Biddle  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Ingham  of 
Sept.  15th,  1829 — "a  very  deliberate,  and  we  hope  a  very 
dispassionate  consideration,  &c.  &c.  the  Board  of  Directors 
think  it  evident  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  believes — 

1st.  That  "the  relations  between  the  Government  and  the 
Bank"  confer  some  supervision  of  the  choice'  of  the  officers  of 
the  Bank  to  the  "proper  management"  of  which  his  interpo- 
sition is  authorize. 

2d.  That  there  is  some  "action  of  the  Government  on  the 
Bank"  not  precisely  explained,  but  in  which  he  is  the  proper 
agent — and  finally, 

3d.  That  it  is  his  right  and  duty  to  suggest  the  views  of 
the  administration  as  to  the  □Q^political  opinions  and  con- 
duct oithe  officers  of  the  BankP'' 

Now  this  is  precisely  the  sort  ofsupervision  the  administra- 
tion had  determined  on  exercising  over  every  other  office  or 
institution  within  its  reach,  and  it  thus  sought,  by  the  saine 
levelling  process j  io  bring  the  Bank  also  at  its  feet.  The 
rights  assumed  were  promptly  and  spiritedly,  though  respect- 
fully met,  and  denied. — "The  Board  of  Directors  of  theBank 
of  the  United  States,  and  the  Board  of  Directors  of  the 
Branches  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  says  Mr.  Biddle, 
acknowledge  not  the  slightest  responsibility"  to  the  Secretary 
of  the  Treasury,  touching  the  political  opinions  of  their  offi- 


29 

cers,  that  being  a  sutiject  on  which  they'  never  consult,  and 
never  desire  to  know  the  views  oiany  administration." 

Nothing  but  the  limits  prescribed  to  these  essays  keeps  me 
from  giving,  entire,  the  masterly  exposition  of  the  views  of  the 
Bank  on  those  three  levelling  and  corrupting  assumptions  of 
the  Secretary.  [The  reader  is  referred  to  the  appendix  of 
Reports  of  the  Committee  of  Inquiry,  appointed  March  14, 
1832,  by  the  House  of  Representatives — pages  139  to  147, 
inclusive.] 

I  have  recurred  to  this  subject  merely  for  the  sake  of  de- 
monstrating that  the  "new  administration"  didset  up  a  claim 
of  right  to  meddle  with,  and  control  the  Bank,  /or  political 
ends,  precisely  as  it  had  resolved  on  doing,  and  has  done,  with 
all  the  departments  and  offices  of  the  federal  government.  I 
consider  the  settlement  of  this  point  essential  to  a  right  com- 
prehension, 

1st.    Of  the  plot,  and 

2d.  Of  the  cause  for  excitement  in  which  the  parti/  and 
its  head  were  thrown^  when  the  Bank  resisted. 

I  now  proceed. 

"  This  world  was  made  for  Csesar,'^  would  seem  to  have 
been  one  of  the  early  lessons  of  President  Jykson.  Flattered 
as  he  was  by  the  sycophants  around  him;  hearing  from  their 
lips,  then,  in  private,  what  afterwards  broke  out  in  public, 
that  he  was  *^The  second  fVashington'^ — "Me  J^ock  of 
^ges" — ^H he  greatest  and  the  best" — and  DO^that  "his po- 
pularity would  stand  any  thing" — it  was  natural  for  him, 
with  his  early  impressions,  derived  from  the  motto — *'This 
world  was  made  for  Cassar,^^  to  infer,  that  "the  government" 
was  made  for  him;  and  that  whatever  power  he  might  choose 
to  exercise,  whether  lawful  or  unlawful,  to  perpetuate  his 
government,  he  had  the  right  to  employ.  That  he  has  acted 
on  this  principle,  whether  he  reached  the  conclusion  through 
the  channel  I  have  suggested,  or  by  any  other,  no  well  in- 
formed citizen,  if  he  be  honest,  will  deny.  Irritate,  or  cross 
the  path  of  such  a  man,  and  what  limits  will  bound  his  re- 
venge? Besides  the  annunciation  that  "the  Bank  owes  al- 
legiance to  no  party,  and  will  submit  tcTHkone,  which  as  I 
have  said,  was  the  shaft  in  the  side  of  the  Lion,  there  were 


divers  smaller  arrows  that  stung  no  less  keenly.  One  of  them 
especially  passed  through  the  entire  phalanx  of  '■'the  party ^'' 
wounding  in  its  passage  the  whole  array  of  proscribers,  and 
lodging  at  last,  in  the  President  himself!  It  is  preserved,  as 
a  relic,  in  that  same  letter  of  Mr.  Biddle's  of  the  15th  June. 
This  is  it: 

' '  The  Bank  is  strong  enough  to  exercise  the  noblest  prerogative 
of  strength,  not  to  be  afraid  of  being  just  to  its  officers;  and  content  that  they 
perform  their  duty,  it  will  not  tij' pursue  them  into  private  iife  with 

INaUISITIONS  INTO  THEIR  FRIENDSHIPS,  NOR  WILL  IT  EVER  SACRIFICE  THEM, 
EITHER  TO  APPEASE  ANT  CLAMOR,  OR  PROPITIATE  ANT  AUTHORITY!" 

This  was  a  scortcher!  It  went  to  the  very  heart  of  the  foul 
practice  of  the  new  administration,  and  in  connexion  with 
what  preceded  its  discharge,  ought  to  have  driven  from  the 
party  that  fell  spirit  of  proscription  which  was  at  that  mo- 
ment pursuing  unsuspecting  and  innocent  men,  "with  inquisi- 
tions into  their  friendships,"  and  sacrificing  them,  Moloch- 
like, to  appease  (party)  clamour,  and  'propitiate'  party  aM- 
thoriij)  and  promote  party  ends. 

Is  there  any  one  who  knows  the  spirit  of  Andrew  Jack- 
son— its  impatience  at  restraint — its  violence  when  resisted — 
and  the  desperate  issue  which  he  has  always  made  with  even 
a  fancied  antagoijjst,  who  does  not  see  in  all  this  the  elements 
of  those  vindictive  and  lawless  acts  with  which  he  has  pursu- 
ed the  Bank,  with  a  viqw,  in  his  own  words,  to  "crush  the 
monster?^'  Is  any  body  at  a  loss  now  to  know  the  cause  of 
his  vengeance?  But  that  vengeance,  to  be  effectual,  must 
not  break  forth  prematurely.  There  lives  not  a  man  who  knows 
General  Jackson,  who  does  not  know  that  he  hides  the  incipi- 
ent fires  of  the  most  consuming  vengeance  with  a  covering— 
or,  if  he  carry  the  pistol,  or  the  dagger,  they  are  carefully  con- 
cealed under  a  robe,  and  never  drawn,  but  when  a  vantage 
ground  justifies  him  in  concluding  that  the  stroke,  or  the  shot, 
when  made,  will  be  fatal.  It  were  easy  to  illustrate  and  prove 
this  by  facts.  Hence  his  first  move  against  the  Bank  did  not 
sparkle,  nor  hiss,  nor  was  the  flame  of  his  revenge  permitted 
then  to  burst  fortJi.  It  was  covert.  Before  I  state  what  it 
was,  I  will  prowe,  from  under  his  oxvn  hand^  that  he  had  not 
been,  before  thc'Cvents  which  I  have  stated,  the  enemy  of  the 


31 

Bank — nay,  I  will  prove  that  he  considered  it  a,  valuable  in- 
stitution, worthy  of  his  patronage,  and  meriting  to  be  extend- 
ed for  the  benefit  of  the  people.  The  following  is  his  own  let-i 
ter  addressed  to  Mr.  Cheves  in  18^1,  when  that  gentleman 
was  President  of  this  same  Bank.  He  seems  to  have  thought, 
when  he  wrote  it,  that  the  mother  Bank  in  Philadelphia  was 
a  *<Branchr  * 

PENSACOLA,Aug,,15,  1821. 

*'Sir— At  the  request  of  the  citizens  of  this  place,  I  have  taken  the  liber- 
ty of  enclosing  you  a  memorial  addressed  to  the  President  and  Directors 
of  the  Branch  of  the  United  States  Bank  at  Philadelphia,  which  has  been 
generalfy  signed  by  the  respectable  inhabitants  of  this  city. 

"The  advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  establishment  of  a  Branch  of 
the  United  Slates  Bank  in  Pensacola  have  been  ably  seiforth'm  the  memo- 
rial, and  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  branch  here,  under  a  judicious  direction, 
would  not  only  prove  convenient  to  the  inhabitants  in  this  section  of  the 
country,  but  also  beneficial  to  that  institution. 

*•!  have  the  honour,  &c. 

ANDREW  JACKSON." 
Langdon  Cheves,  Esq.  * 

•  I  shall  be  excused  for  introducing  here  a  letter  from  General  Jackson's 
chosen  successor,  written  five  years  after  to  Mr.  Biddle,  asking  to  have 
extended,  for  the  benefit  of  the  citizens  of  Albany,  a  branch  of  this  same 
bank.  The  remark  that  Mr.  Noah  makes  on  this  letter  of  Mr.  Van  Buren, 
is, — "Had  the  Branch  been  established  at  Albany,  at^hat  time  and  under 
ihdr — (i.  e.  the  signers,)  control — (these  signers  are,  among  others,  Wm. 
L.  Marcy,  M.  Van  Buren,  B.  F.  Butler,  Charles  E.  Dudley,  and  Nathan 
Sanford,)  (J^the  Safety  Fund  would  have  been  unknown,  and  the  United 
States  Bank  re-chartered." — What  a  figure  this  letter  makes  Van  Buren 
cut,  with  his  "UNCOMPROMISING  HOSTILITY  TO  THE  BANK  OF 
THE  UNITED  STATES,"  flying  out  of  his  mouth.  It  was ^^s  then,  but 
thistles  now — very  wholesome  bread  indeed  in  1826,  but  a  serpent,  now!!! 

Albabtt,  July  17,  1826. 

Dear  Sir — At  the  instance  of  a  highly  respectable  portion  of  the  good 
people  of  this  city,  I  have  signed,  and  now  transmit,  the  enclosed.  Per- 
sonaUy  1  neither  have  nor  desire  any  connexion  with  Banks.'.'!.'  and  the  sole 
object  of  my  agency  is  to  gratify  the  wishes  of  our  citizens,  and  to  promote 
the  interests  of  the  city. 

Of  the  fitness  of  the  proposed  measure  it  would  be  idle  for  me,  who 
know  nothing,  to  speak  to  you,  who  know  every  thing,  upon  the  subject. 
I  will,  therefore,  only  say  that  the  applicants  are  men  of  the  first  character 
in  point  of  business  and  credit,  and  that  the  present  state  of  the  city  is  that 
of  unexampled  prosperity.  1  shall  be  happy  to  hear  from  you  as  soon  as 
convenient.' !  ». 

M.  VAN  BUREN. 

N.  BIDDI.E,  Esq. 


32 

No  hostility  towards  the  Bank  is  discovered  in  any  of  Gene- 
ral Jackson's  acts,  or  sayings  afterwards,  until  in  1829,  it  re- 
fused, as  has  been  shown,  to  become  tributary  to  the  political 
schemes  of  "his  administration."  The  first  act  of  General 
Jackson,  which,  however,  conceals  his  wrath  which  was  kept 
then  from  bursting  forth,  only  by  the  agency  of  those  around 
him,  we  find  in  his  message  to  Congress,  of  December,  1829: 

"The  charter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  says  that 
message,  expires  in  1836,  and  its  stockholders  will,  most  pro- 
bably, apply  for  a  renewal  of  their  privileges.  In  order  to 
avoid  the  evils  resulting  from  precipitancy,  in  a  measure  in- 
volving such  important  principles,  and  such  deep  pecuniary 
interests,  I  feel,  that  I  cannot  in  justice  to  the  party  interest- 
ed, too  soon  present  it  to  the  deliberate  consideration  of  the 
Legislature  and  the  people.  Both  the  constitutionality  and 
the  expediency  of  the  law,  creating  this  Bank,  are  well  ques- 
tioned by  a  large  portion  of  our  fellow  citizens,  and  it  must 
be  admitted  hy  all  that  it  QCj^  has  failed  in  the  great  end  of 
establishing  a  uniform  and  sound  currency^ 

There  is  only  one  charge  made  in  this  against  the  Bank, 
and  that  relates  to  its  agency  in  effecting  "a  uniform  and 
sound  currency."  «  As  to  the  reference  to  the  "constitutionality 
and  expediency  of  the  law  creating  the  Bank,"  the  President 
assumes  .nothing,  except  to  say  they  "are  well  questioned  by 
a  large  portion  of  our  fellow  citizens." 

He  does  not  say  that  he  questions  them.  My  business  is 
with  the  unqualified  assertion  touching  the  currency.  This 
is  an  executive  calumny  against  the  Bank.  It  is  even  more 
barefaced  than  were  the  calumnies  of  Woodbury  and  Hill, 
and  others.  It  was  made  in  the  face  of  the  whole  nation  and 
the  world,  and  of  facts  no  less  notorious  than  are  the  revolu- 
tions of  the  seasons,  or  the  shining  of  the  sun  by  day,  and  the 
moon  and  stars  by  night.  It  were  almost  as  great  an  outrage 
upon  the  common  sense  of  the  people,  had  the  President 
said  the  Bank  had  not  faithfully  and  effectually  fulfilled  its 
obligations  to  the  government,  or  that  it  had  issued  no  bills, 
made  no  discounts,  or   that  there   was  no  Bank  in  existence. 

The  flame  which  Woodbury  and  Hill,  and  the  under  cabi- 


33 

net,  had  kindled  in  the  President  against  the  Bank,  must,  how- 
ever, have  some  outlet.  At  first  it  was  not  intended  to  be  of 
much  moment,  but  passing  ofTat  some  remote  quarter,  it  would, 
after  answering  that  end,  by  easing  somewhat  the  President, 
furnish'  an  earnest  to  those  who  had  him  in  charge,  as  to  what 
they  might  count  upon  for  the  future. 

I  shall  demonstrate  in  my  next,  the  absolute  ignorance  of 
the  state  of  the  currency,  which  such  a  calumny  disclosed; 
expose  its  wickedness,  and  then  pass  off  to  others  emanating 
from  the  same  high  source;  treating  each  with  as  much  re- 
spect as  its  nature  and  object  will  permit,  but  with  that  inde- 
pendence which  truth  demands,  and  which,  as  a  citizen,  I 
have  the  right  to  exercise. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  8. 

It  required  all  the  assurance  of  the  worst  men,  and  all  the 
ignorance  and  corruption  upon  which  that  assurance  operated, 
to  force  out  through  a  Presidential  message  to  Congress,  an 
assertion  so  utterly  devoid  of  truth,  as  that  "the  Bank  had 
failed  to  establish  a  uniform  and  sound  currency."  I  hazard 
nothing  in  saying  that  those  who  contrived  this  calumny,  caused 
it  to  be  put  forth  only  as  ?i  feeler.,  or  a  decoy  duck,  to  ascer- 
tain the  state  of  the  public  mind,  and  how  far  the  President 
might  go  in  the  desperate  effort  which  it  was  now  resolved 
to  make,  to  be  revenged  of  the  Bank  for  the  firm  and  honour- 
able stand  it  had  taken,  and  its  refusal  to  lend  itself  «*  aparty 
tool  to  the  new  administration. — The  assertion  was  not  intend- 
ed to  operate  upon  the  enlightened  and  virtuous,  but  only 
upon  the  ignorant  and  vicious.  To  give  it  effect,  those  whom 
the  President  had  "rewarded,^^  as  also  all  who  were  promised 
to  be  rewarded,  together  with  the  press  that  had  been  subsi«< 
dised  for  the  purpose,  were  all  required  to  echo  whatever  the 
President  might  say,  and  back  him  in  the  attitude  which  he 
now  assumed,  oi personal  hostility  to  the  Bank.  The  plan 
of  operations  was  agreed  upon — the  advances  upon  the  Bank, 


34 

with  the  mode  of  attack,  were  all  settled.  The  leader  of  the 
conflict  was  no  less  a  personage  than  the  "hero  of  two  wars" 
— "the  second  Washington,"  and  the  head  of  **the  party f^ 
who,  in  the  victory  that  was  promised  over  the  Bank,  was  to 
be  crowned  with  a  new  chaplet,  and  those  who  should  aid  him 
in  the  enterprise,  with  "  rewards.^'' 

But  the  Bank  was  at  that  time  deeply  seated  in  the  affec- 
tions of  the  great  body  of  the  people.  Pennsylvania  was 
unanimous-  for  a  re-charter,  and  proved  this,  by  passing  in  her 
Legislature  corresponding  resolutions.  The  people  every 
where  enjoying  the  benefits  oithejifty  millions  which  were 
in  circulation,  and  no  portion  of  the  country  feeling  any  dis- 
tress, but,  on  the  contrary,  every  portion  of  it  improving  and 
flourishing,  it  was  necessary  in  taking  a  first  step  of  hostility 
to  do  it  with  great  caution.  A  breath  was  to  be  blown  upon 
the  almost  extinguished  embers  of^'constitutionaP  objections, 
aud  doubts  were  to  be  revived  touching  the  ''expediency'^  of 
the  Bank.  But  it  was  necessary,  at  that  time,  not  to  commit 
the  President  upon  either  of  these  points.  He  had  a  second 
term  of  office  to  cater  for,  and  those  who  basked  in  the  sun- 
shine of  his  favour,  (except  Kendall,  who  announced  his  in- 
tention to  serve  but  one  term,)  were  solicitous  to  remain  where 
they  were,  during,  at  least,  two  Presidential  terms.  Hence 
the  extreme  caution  necessary  to  be  observed  in  touching 
those  points  of  ^^constitutionality"  and  " expediency, ^^  and  the 
absolute  necessity  of  avoiding  any  committal  in  regard  to 
them  by  him  who  was,  henceforth,  to  be  the  leader  in  this 
war.  There  was  nothing  left,  at  that  time,  but  to  issue  a 
bold  and  daring  calumny. 

There  was  no  ground  yet,  upon  which  it  was  deemed  safe 
to  rest  a  direct  charge  against  the  Bank,  or  the  personal 
honour  of  those  who  administered  its  affairs.  The  "spies"  had 
not  yet  got  to  work,  nor  a  party  committee  appointed.  It  had 
been  certified  by  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  (one  of  the 
party)  that  it  had  ably  and  efficiently  fulfilled  all  its  obliga- 
tions to  the  Government,  and  the  people  every  where  felt  its 
agency,  as  the  earth  feels  the  influence  of  the  vernal  year. 
But  something  must  be  said — the  Bank  must  be  struck — and 


35 

the  President  was  the  man  ;  (for  *'his  popularity  could  stand 
any  thing,")  who  must  say  the  word,  and  give  the  blow.  The 
attempt  was  certainly  hazardous — especially  as  Woodbury 
and  Hill,  and  others,  the  scouts,  had  been  driven  back  in  dis- 
grace. But  the  onset  must  be  made — the  voice  of  Jackson 
must  be  heard — his  finger  must  poijit  the  way — and  he  must 
be  seen  now  in  the  van.  Then  let  him,  who  dare,  of  all  in 
office,  and  of  all  who  expected  to  participate  in  the  spoils ;  or 
let  any  press,  having  flying  over  it  the  Jackson  flag,  falter  for 
a  moment,  if  they  dare, — they  knew  better. 

At  such  a  crisis  of  doubt  and  desperation,  and  in  such  an 
emergency,  '■^revenge',  reuew^^.'"  was  sounded — when  up  went 
the  Presidential  Banner,  with  the  foul  and  calumniating  in- 
scription : 

^S^  "  It  must  be  admitted,  bt  all,  that  the  Bank  has  failed,  in  the  great 
end  of  establishing  a  UNIFORM  and  SAFE  currency."^ 

-At  sight  of  it,  every  intelligent  citizen,  who  was  honesty 
felt  ashamed — marvelled  at  the  ignorance  of  the  President 
— and  was  startled  at  the  wickedness  of  the  declaration!  All 
previous  proofs  to  the  contrary,  were  now  to  be  utterly  dis- 
regarded; and  all  subsequent  evidence  trodden,  by  the  party, 
under  foot.  What,  if  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  had  only 
about  a  year  before,  said : — 

*'That  during  the  four  years  preceding,  the  receipts  of  the  Government 
had  amounted  to  more  than  ninety-seven  milUons  of  dollars,  and  that  all  the 
payments  had  been  punctually  met;  that  it  is  the  preservation  of  a  sound 
currency,  that  can  alone  impart  stability  to  property,  and  m-event  those 
fluctuations  in  its  value,  hurtful  alike  to  individuals  and  the  nation;  and  that 
OIj'  this  advantage  THE  BANK  has  secured  to  the  community." 

It  was  as  though  such  testimony  had  never  been  borne. 
Now,  either  the  President  uttered  a  calumny  against  the  Bank, 
in  ignorance,  or  knowing  it  to  be  one;  or  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  palmed  upon  Congress  and  the  people,  in  an  official 
report,  n  falsehood!  There  is  no  escaping  one  or  the  other 
horn  of  this  dilemma.  Let  us  now  see  which  of  the  parties 
is  sustained. 

Congress,  in  1829,  had  both  the  President's  and  Secretary's 
declaration  before  it ;  and  indeed  whatever  else  bore  on  the 
question.    The  Committee  of  Ways  and  Means  of  the  House 


36 

of  Representatives,  (Mr.  M'Duffie,  Chairman,)  to  whom  was 
referred  that  part  of  the  message  relating  to  the  Bank,  "^e- 
cidedly  dissented'^  from  the  President's  assertion,  that  tb€ 
Bank  had  failed  to  establish  a  uniform  and  sound  currency. 
It  had,  on  the  contrary,  and  in  this  respect,  "been  productive 
of  results,  more  salutary,  than  were  anticipated  by  the  most 
sanguine  advocates  of  the  policy  establishing  it.     (Q^  It  has 

ACTUALLY  FURNISHED  A  CIRCULATING  MEDIUM  MORE  UNIFORM  THAN 
SPECIE,"  &>C. 

A  Committee  of  the  Senate,  also,  upon  the  same  subject,  in 
1829,  says:  "The  Government  had,  for  ten  years  preceding 
the  1st  of  January,  1830,  received  from  9,000  agents,  $230,- 
068,855  17.  This  sum  has  been  collected  in  every  section  of 
this  widely  extended  country.  It  has  been  disbursed  at  other 
points,  many  thousand  miles  distant  from  the  places  where  it 
was  collected,  and  yet,  it  has  been  so  collected,  and  distri- 
buted without  the  loss  (so  far  as  the  Committee  could  learn,) 
of  a  single  dollar,  and  without  the  expense  of  a  single  dollar 
to  the  Government.''* 

The  committee  of  the  Senate  proceed — 

"  That  the  currency  by  which  the  government  has  been  en- 
abled to  collect  and  transfer  such  an  amount  of  revenue,  to  pay  its  army 
and  navy,  and  all  its  expenses,  and  the  national  debt,  is  unsafe,  or  vs- 
SOUND,  cannot  readily  be  believed." 

Now  let  the  reader,  adding  to  all  this  his  own  experience, 
and  comparing  the  condition  of  the  currency  before  the  Bank 
of  the  Unif^d  States  was  organized,  with  the  state  of  the  cur- 
rency when  General  Jackson  said  it  was  neither  "uniform  nor 
safe,"  and  decide  what  reliance  ought  afterwards  to  be  placed 
on  any  thing  which  that  high  functionary  might  assert  touch- 
ing the  afiairs  of  the  Bank, — and  especially  when  it  was 
known  that  vengeance  was  sought  of  it,  for  refusing  to  become 
the  creature  of  "the  party." 

Who  does  the  re^ider  believe — Andrew  Jackson,  upon  his 
naked  assertion,  or  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  backed  as 
he  is  by  a  committee  of  each  house  of  Congress,  and  by  his 
own  personal  experience? — For  where  is  the  man  who  does 
not  know,  that  he  could  have  travelled,  at  that  very  time, 


1?- 

over  this  whole  country,  and  found  in  Bank  Notes,  of  the 
United  States  Bank,  and  its  Branches,  a  medium  as  uniform 
as  the  light ;  and  a  safety  as  unquestioned  as  the  consciousness 
of  his  own  existence. 

The  ivickedness  of  the  President's  assertion  need  not  be 
exposed.  The  dimmest  eye  will  perceive  it  in  the  injury 
which  doubts,  even  touching  the  "soundness"  of  the  currency, 
were  calculated  to  inflict  on  the  government  itself,  by  lessen- 
ing the  value  of  the  seven  millions  it  owned  of  the  bank  stock, 
and  that  owned  by  every  individual  stockholder.  Such  a  foul 
breath,  blown  over  the  reputation  of  the  Bank,  was  calcu- 
lated to  produce  (coming  from  a  President  of  the  United  States) 
effects  not  less  fatal  than  the  incendiary  seeks  to  produce 
when  he  fires  and  lays  waste  property.  Whether  it  be  for 
plunder,  or  to  glut  his  revenge,  changes  not  the  character  of 
the  act.  There  is  no  law  of  morals  that  exempts  the  former 
from  the  weight  of  public  indignation,  to  the  benefits  of  which 
the  latter  is  not  equally  entitled.  In  my  eye  they  occupy  the 
same  level,  and  are  entitled  to  like  punishment.  It  was  not 
owing  to  any  agency  of  the  President,  nor  to  any  motive  in 
him,  that  a  fall  in  bank  stock  did  not  occur,  of  deep  and  last- 
ing- injury  to  those  who  owned  it,  but  to  the  unshaken  public 
confidence  in  the  Bank,  and  in  the  -wisdom  and  discretion  of 
those  to  Tvhom  its  interests  ivere  conjided. 

I  will  show,  in  my  next,  how  this  first  Presidential  calumny 
operated,  and  what  results  it  produced. 

♦      ARISTIDES. 


No.  9. 

The  President  had  struck  his  first  blow,  and  his  retainers 
were  required  to  follow  it  up.  .  .'.r 

I  did  not  notice  in  my  last,  one  part  of  the  Presidential  plan 
of  attack  on  the  bank.  I  omitted  it,  because  my  business 
in  these  essays,  is  with  the  calumnies,  and  their  authors. — 
But  the  appeal  which  it  made  to  iht  speculators  and  plunder- 
ers, was  so  direct,  and  so  intimately  connected  with  the  pro- 


38 

fligacy  of  the  plot,  that  I  beg  leave  to  mention  it  here.  It 
formed  part  of  the  same  Presidential  message  of  1829.  It  was 
a  proposition  for  another  Bank,  in  place  of  the  present,  to  be 
founded  on  the  resources  of  the  Government.  The  design, 
was  to  make  it  easier  for  men,  who  were  willing  to  go  with 
the  President,  but  who,  like  Pennsylvania,  at  that  timCf  was 
not  prepared  to  keep  him  company  in  his  crusade  against  the 
currency  of  the  country,  and  the  war  that  was  commenced 
against  the  prosperity  of  the  nation,  to  fall  in  with,  and  co- 
operate with  him.  "Oh,  well,  it  was  argued,  it's  no  matter 
— if  the  Bank  ofcthe  United  States  shall  go  down,  it's  only 
overthrowing  a  monopoly ^  and  a  power  that  is  made  potent, 
and  hurtful  hy  foreign  capital,  and  put  in  its  place  a  g-enuine 
American  Bank  founded  on  the  resources  of  the  government; 
in  a  word,  an  institution  that  will  consent  to  go  with  our 
party. '^  The  bait  sure  enough  took,  even  to  the  silly  preju- 
dice against  foreign  capital,  which  has  just  the  same  reason 
in  it,  as  would  be  a  hatred  of  the  sun's  light,  because  it  comes 
from  the  solar,  and  not  the  mundane  system.  Even  Pennsyl- 
vania began,  under  this  calumny,  and  this  silly  delusion  which 
was  born  with  it,  to  relax  her  hold  on  the  Bank,  and  to  place 
herself  in  an  attitude  of  rebellion  to  her  own  best  interests. 

Tidings  of  all-  these  workings  and  heavings,  in  the  minds  of 
men,  were  transmitted  like  so  many  rays  of  light  through  the 
appropriate  organ,  the  under  cabinet  at  Washington,  to  the 
President,  who  was  told  tliat  nothing  could  exceed  the  greet- 
ings with  which  his  jflan  had  been  received  by  DC7=*  "  the 
people." 

Well  then,  at  the  next  session  of  Congress,  in  1830,  the 
President  in  his  message,  having  become  delighted  with  the 
success,  of  which  he  was  assured,  there  never  was  any  thing 
to  equal  it,  and  in  the  face  of  the  rebuke  which  Congress  had 
uttered  at  the  previous  session,  repeated  his  views;  and  so 
again,  (encojuraged  by  the  same  means,)  in  1831.  Meanwhile 
the  executive  machinery,  under  the  direction  of  the  under 
cabinet,  had  been  so  extended,  and  the  press  had  become  so 
effectually  drilled,  and  the  office  holders  were  so  thoroughly 
impressed  with  the  nature  of  the  service  that  was  required  of 


39 

them,  as  not  to  dare,  even  to  think,  much  less  speaky  except 
as  they  were  commanded,  that  no  two  voices  could  be  heard 
from  Maine,  to  the  extreme  south;  no  inharmonious  tone  from 
the  Hills  of  New  Hampshire,  to  the  Bentons  of  Louisiana, 
but  all  united  in  harmonious  concert,  to  sustain  the  ^'venerable 
President"  in  his  ^^enlightened,  and  patriotic  design"  upon  the 
Bank ! 

The  new  Bank  was  yet  held  out  as  one  of  the  tnost  invalu- 
able of  all  designs — stamped,  in  its  very  features,  with  the 
impress  of  Presidential  wisdom,  and  dandled  on  the  lap  of  his 
own  personal  favour,  it  must  be  of  all  things  in  the  world,  in 
the  eye  of  "  the  party,"  the  very  best  adapted  to  promote 

not  the  interests  of  the  people,  but  of  ^'the  party."     Of 

course  every  party  man  was  taught  to  believe  that  it  was  for 
him  it  was  intended,  and  that  from  its  paps,  he  should  draw, 
for  the  remainder  of  his  life,  the  most  nourishing  benefits. 
Pennsylvania  was  half  persuaded  to  apply  her  lips  to  this 
fountain,  but  one  of  her  eyes  not  being,  yet^  quite  closed  to 
her  own  interests,  she  saw  a  design  in  her  sister,  New  York, 
to  push  her  aside,  and  take  the  -whole  to  herself.  It  became 
necessary  to  bring  a  film  over  that  eye — and  it  -was  done! 
"  THE  PARTY"  has  always  been  expert  in  blinding  certain 
people ;  and  certain  states. 

This  scheme  of  a  national  Bank,  was  so  monstrous — the 
thing  itself  was  so  improbable,  and  ridiculous,  that  every  in- 
telligent man  in  Congress,  and  out  of  it,  treated  it  with  con- 
tempt. I  need  not  say,  that  after  answering,  like  the  "  gold 
bill"  of  more  recent  origin,  the  delusive  end  of  its  Creation,  it 
was  permitted  to  sink  into  oblivion. 

But  to  the  calumnies,  and  their  authors.- 

I  have  no  intention  of  enumerating  and  exposing  all  the 
calumnies  against  the  Bank,  or  naming  all  their  authors.  I 
had  just  as  well  attempt  to  count  the  stars.  It  will  not  be 
expected  of  me  to  enumerate  the  number  of  members  of  Con- 
gress, whom  the  Bank  has  been  charged  with  bribing;  nor 
those  who,  having  been  stabbed  in  party  broils,  it  has  been 
asserted,  owed  their  wounds  to  the  agency  of  this  institution 
— nor  shall  I  number  the  dead,  who  have  been  sent  to  their 


40 

long  home,  by  its  agency.  I  shall  treat  these,  and  like  slan- 
ders, as  a  man  in  battle  would  the  bites  of  musquetoes,  or  the 
presence  of  toads ;  or,  as  would  the  physician  those  agents  of 
his  art  which  are  used  to  expel  only  the  ordinary  causes  of 
disease,  when  the  stomach  had  lodged  within  it,  deadly  poison. 
True,  those  miserable  contrivances,  as  venomous  as  they  are 
odious,  have  not  been  without  their  use.  "The  party^^  have 
kept  them  buzzing  and  hopping  in  every  body's  path ;  and 
many  have  yielded  themselves  up  to  the  fatal  influence  of 
their  presence.  They  were  generated  for  the  grog  shop  gen- 
try; and  to  be  usfed  at  party  meetings,  to  operate  upon  and 
influence  minds  incapable  of  relishing  any  thing  more  pure, 
comprehending  any  thing  more  intricate,  or  of  digesting  any 
thing  more  substantial. 

My  business  is  with  Presidential  calumnies — and  with 
those  of  his  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury — and  with  those  of 
his  "  spies;"  and  such  sort  of  people.  It  will  be  seen  before 
1  have  done  with  these,  that  what  those  men  have  said  and 
done,  aided,  as  they  have  been,  by  the  press,  and  their  party 
army;  and  the  patronage  of  the  Government  was  enough,  not 
to  destroy  a  Bank,  but,  when  applied  in  the  same  spirit,  the 
liberties  of  a  -whole  people.  How  far  the  use  of  the  same 
agencies,  prompted  by  a  like  spirit,  may  ultimately  effect  this 
object,  a  few  years  more  will  determine, — perhaps,  a  few 
months. 

1  have  named  "Me  spies"  last — but  their  employment  was 
among  the  earlier  movements  of  the  President.  How  long 
they  worked  in  their  disgraceful  and  secret  employment,  I 
have  not  the  means  of  knowing.  That  they  were  employed 
by  President  Jackson,  I  have  his  own  letters  to  prove — and 
these  also  prove  the  tiature  of  the  work  that  it  was  made  their 
"duty"  to  perform.  I  will  pass  over  the  spies  for  the  present, 
to  notice  a  witness  procured  for  the  occasion,  by  Col.  Thomas 
H.  Benton ;  and  who  came  forward  prepared,  as  the  sequel 
will  prove,  to  damn  the  Bank — to  damn  its  President — and 
to  blow  a  mildew  over  the  reputation  of  the  whole  of  the 
Bank's  ofiicers.  It  was  fitting  that  he  who  could  write  such 
a  letter  as  did  Col.  Thomas  II.  Benton,  about  the  East  room 


41 

of  the  President's  House,  should  be  found  in  fellowship,  and 
urging  on  to  this  work  of  destruction  of  both  the  currency  of 
the  country,  and  the  reputation  of  men, — such  a  man  as 
Reuben  M.  Whitney.  I  say  this  witness  was  sent  on  to  ap- 
pear before  the  Examining  G)mmittee,  by  Col.  Benton.  Mr. 
Adams  says,  in  his  unanswered,  and  unanswerable  Report: 
{Let  it  be  read^  That  Mr.  Whitney,  upon  being  asked, 
"  What  had  been  his  motive  for  giving  the  testimony?"  gave 
the  answer,  that  "  he  did  not  recollect^  whether  it  had  been 
voluntary,  or  asked  of  him ;"  but  on  being  further  questioned, 
he  answered,  "that  Judge  Clayton  (the  Chairman  of  the  Com- 
mittee,) had  been  recommended  to  him  by  a  letter  from 
OCF'  ^r-  Benton.  Here  then  we  have  these  "  birds  of  a 
feather.''^  What  sort  of  bird  Col.  Benton  is,  can  be  shown  by 
certain  North  Carolina  and  other  reminiscences,  and  by  that 
particular  reminiscence  touching  the  East  room  letter,  &c.  &c. 
What  sort  of  bird  Reuben  M.  Whitney  is,  the  reader  will 
judge  for  himself,  for  I  shall  give  him  to  h\m.f  just  as  I  Jind 
him^  in  his  character  of  witness,  giving  his  testimony  against 
the  Bank,  and  in  favour  of  the  President's  war  upon  it, 
OCF*  upon  his  oath!  I  will  further  premise,  that  this  is  the 
same  Reuben  M.  Whitney,  who  has  been  ever  since  such  a 
special  favourite  of  the  President,  and  "the  party. "  But  to 
Reuben  M.  Whitney,  before  the  Committee. 

"Whispers,  says  Mr.  Adams,  it  now  appears  had  been  in 
circulation  even  from  the  year  1824,  ripening  for  a  term  of 
seven  years,  in  rumours  of  combined  and  concerted  frauds  and 
embezzlement  of  the  funds  of  the  Bank  to  the  ^^  private 
purposes  of  the  President  of  the  Bank  and  the  principal  Bro- 
kers of  Philadelphia."  "The  charges  against  the  President 
of  the  Bank  were,  that  Thomas  Biddle,  a  distant  relative  of 
his,  and  one  of  the  most  eminent  Brokers  of  Philadelphia,  harf 
been  in  the  habit,  by  permission  of  the  President,  of  taking 
money  out  of  the  first  teller's  drawer,  leaving  in  its  place  cer- 
tificates of  stock;  of  keeping  the  money  an  indefinite  number 
of  days,  and  then  replacing  the  money  and  taking  back  his 
certificates  of  stock,  uoithout  payment  of  interest  upon  ' 
the  monies  of  which  he  had  had  the  use.*   The  quintessence 

6 


42 

of  the  charge  was,  the  use  by  Mr.  Thomas  Biddle,  of  the  mo- 
nies of  the  Bank  without  interest."  (See  Mr.  Adams'  Report 
for  this,  and  for  what  follo\ys.)  To  all  this  Reuben  M.  Whit- 
ney swore!  He  swore  also  that  he  went  to  the  President's 
room,  and  finding  him  alone,  told  him  what  he  had  discovered, 
&c.,  and  requested  that  no  such  transaction  should  be  repeat- 
ed whilst  he  was  a  Director  of  the  institution.  He  swore  also 
that  the  President  did  not  deny  the  facts  as  he  stated  them. 
He  swore  that  the  President  coloured  up  very  much,  and 
promised  that  no  such  thing  should  happen  again.  Now  this, 
if  true,  was  enough  to  kindle  a  fire  sufficient,  not  only  to  de- 
stroy all  that  was  favourable  towards  the  Bank  in  public  opi- 
nion, but  to  consume  to  ashes  the  fair  fame  of  Mr.  Biddle. 
It  was  worse  than  an  attempt  to  murder !  Well,  was  all,  or 
any  of  this  true?  NOT  A  WORD  OF  IT,  reader!!!  (Mr. 
Whitney  made  other  charges,  the  nature  of  \yhich  will  appear 
in  their  refutation.)  Mr.  Adams,  in  commenting  on  this  act 
of  shocking  depravity,  says — 

"The  instinct  of  calumny  is  inventive  in  details,  (Mr. 
Whitney  had  produced  a  tattered  and  torn  memorandum  of 
much  of  this,  and  dealt  in  minute  detail)  precisely  because 
details  make  their  way  most  easily  to  the  credit  of  the  hearer, 
and  it  has  been  long  remarked  by  keen  observers  of  human 
action,  that  he  who  accustoms  himself  to  make  a  truant  of  his 
memory,  is  often  times  the  first  to  credit  his  own  lie."  Mr.  Adams 
does  not  pretend  to  say  this  was  the  case  with  R.  M.  Whitney. 
But  he  does  say,  "that  the  charges  respecting  the  notes  (this 
relates  to  the  other  charges  referred  to)  which  he  (Whitney) 
had  discovered  in  the  Teller's  drawer,  and  which  he  swore  had 
not  been  entered  on  the  books  when  he  discovered  them,  but 
which  were  so  entered  when  he  discovered  them,  and  that 
they  were  so  entered  by  his  direction,  was  QQ^  RETRACT- 
ED BY  HIMSELF  after  the  statement  had  been  blasted  by 
the  production  of  the  entries  upon  the  face  of  the  books  them- 
selves!" It  also  turned  out  that  Whitney's  pretended  inter- 
view with  the  President,  Mr.  Biddle,  at  the  time  he  rebuked 
him,  and  when  he  received  the  confession,  accompanied  by  a 
blushing  promise  of  future  amendment,  that  thiifldentical  Mr. 
Biddle  was  absent  from  Philadelphia!!!    When  this  fact  was 


43 

proven,  Mr.  Adams  says — "Mr.  Whitney  was  not  prepared 
with  any  substituted  invention  of  details  to  supply  its  place." 

Which,  I  ask,  of  the  leaders  of  "the  party;"  which  of  its 
pensioned  presses;  which  of  its  "rewarded"  officers,  and  which 
of  the  expectants,  ever  sought  to  disabuse  the  pu|jjic  mind  of 
this  foul  and  damning  calumny?  Nay,  I  ask  which  of  them, 
(except  Judge  Clayton,  the  Jackson  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee who  revoked  all  his  agency  against  the  Bank  in  the  hor- 
rible fraud  committed  by  his  report  on  the  public  confidence, 
by  a  speech  confessional  on  the  floor  of  Congress)  omitted  to 
send  the  testimony  of  Whitney,  blasted  as  it  was,  round  among 
"the  people?"  No,  the  poison  of  the  slanders  was  not  only 
left  to  work  upon  its  victims,  but  channels  were  cut  to  send 
it  over  the  land ! 

Is  it  for  this  most  daring  attempt  to  slay  men's  reputation, 
and  entail  infamy  on  themselves  and  families,  that  President 
Jackson  holds  by  the  hand,  to  this  hour,  and  with  all  these 
facts  before  him,  this  same  Reuben  M.  Whitney?  If  not, 
for  what  else  is  it?  Let  no  man  suppose  I  cherish  a  particle 
of  personal  hostility  towards  Mr.  Whitney.  I  do  not  even 
know  him,  and  so  far  as  I  know,  never  saw  him.  I  am  dis- 
cussing his  official  acts,  and  demonstrating  the  foulness  of  the 
calumnies  which  have  been  invented  to  destroy  one  of  the 
best  institutions  that  ever  existed.  If  they  immolate  him,  he 
has  nobody  to  blame  but  himself.  I  feel  in  common  with  all 
the  humane,  sympathy  for  his  family — and  so  did  the  public 
for  the  family  of  Arnold,  when  by  his  defection  he  sought  to 
bring  down  ruin  on  our  country  and  its  hopes.  But  the  traitor 
was  blasted ! 

I  shall  in  my  next  pay  my  respects  to  "the  spies,"  and  to 
their  testimony. 

If  any  ask,  as  some  have,  why  this  re-opening  the  wounds 
of  the  past,  and  in  defence  of  an  institution  that  is  destined  to 
go  down  ? — I  answer  by  referring  to  my  first  number,  and  by 
quoting  the  couplet  with  which  Mr.  Adams  concluded  his 
masterly  report, — 

"  When  truth,  or  virtue,  an  affront  endures. 

The  affront  is  mine,  my  friend,  and  should  be  yours." 

ARISTIDES. 


44 

No.  10. 

I  am  not  ready  for  the  spies  yet.  I  reserve  them  for  my 
next.  I  have  a  few  words  to  say  on  the  issue  of  the  exami- 
nation into  the  affairs  of  the  Bank  by  the  committee  before 
which  Whitney  was  sent  by  Col.  Benton  to  appear.  The 
chairman  of  that  committee,  the  reader  knows,  was  Judge 
Clayton,  of  Georgia,  a  leading  member  of  the  Jackson  party. 
His  report,  which,  as  the  reader  also  knows,  was  responded 
to  by  the  minority  of  that  committee,  at  the  head  of  which 
was  Mr.  M'Duffie,  and  by  a  report  from  a  member  of  that 
committee,  Mr.  Adams — and  so  effectual  were  these  reports, 
and  the  facts  on  which  they  were  based  so  overwhelming ;  so 
entirely  did  they  vindicate  the  Bank  from  the  charges  and 
implications  contained  in  Judge  Clayton's  report,  that  a  bill 
passed  both  Houses  of  Congress  to  re-chajrter  the  Bank. 
Goaded  almost  to  desperation  by  such  a  succession  of  defeats, 
from  Woodbury's  and  Hill's  to  his  own,  the  President  gave 
out  that  the  Bank  had  bribed  Congress!  The  Globe  sent 
round  the  charge.  The  affiliated  presses  echoed  it.  "  If  I 
had  been  venal,  said  the  President,  I  should  have  sold  myself 
to  its  designs."     How  mad  he  got ! 

Having  failed  to  secure  the  Bank,  to  be  used  as  a  political 
instrument  to  carry  on  the  designs  of  "the  party,"  as  have 
been  the  post  office,  the  land  office,  an^  the  whole  official 
patronage  of  the  government,  it  became  necessary,  on  the 
principle  which  prompts  the  incendiary,  haying  fired  the 
house  and  thrown  the  torch  from  his  hand,  to  cry  "fire;"  and 
the  thief  to  join  the  cry  "stop  thief,"  for  the  President  and 
his  associates  to  set  up  the  cry  that  the  Bank  had  joined  the 
league  against  him,  and  was  employing  its  power  to  prevent 
his  re-election  to  the  Presidency.  This  was  as  much  as  to 
say  to  his  army  of  office  holders,  "here  now  is  your  antagonist, 
as  well  as  mine :  if  you  are  supine,  or  neglect  to  give  all 
diligence  in  circulating  what  the  Globe  and  its  associates 
shall  publish,  and  I  shall  say,  we  shall  be  defeated."  <'  The 
spoils"  to  which  we  have  succeeded  will  be  no  longer  ours, 
therefore  be  up  and  doing,  and  let  every  office  holder  go  forth 


45 

armed  with  newspapers,  and  panvphlets,  and  speeches;  and 
convince  the  people  that  the  Bank  is  employing  its  great 
power  for  the  overthrow  of  our  party^  He  who  shrfll  not 
prove  zealous  in  this  struggle,  will  not  only  jeopard  his  office 
hy  losing  it,  (in  the  loss  of  the  cause,)  but  /  will  wrest  it 
from  him  by  virtue  of  my  own  power  to  do  so.  I  will  *^pun- 
ish"  any  officer  of  mine  whp  shall  not  prove  zealous  in  assist- 
ing me  to  carry  out  my  designs  against  the  Bank." 

This  was  well  understood.  Hence,  when  the  public  press 
remonstrated  against  the  interference  of  the  officers  of  the 
federal  government  with  elections,  so  far  from  exciting  in  the 
President  a  disposition  to  practice  upon  the  doctrine  of  his 
inaugural  message,  in  which  he  inveighs  against  this  very 
practice,  it  served  to  fix  every  such  zealous  officer  more  firmly 
in  his  affections,  and  secure  to  him  additional  claims  to  *'  re- 
wards." 

But  to  the  Report  of  the  G)mmittee,  of  which  Judge  Clay- 
ton was  Chairman.  It  was  sent  over  the  whole  country,  with 
notes  and  anotations.  Stage  loads  of  the  Globe,  filled  with 
every  description  of  poison  that  could  be  extracted  from  that 
report,  and  other,  sources,  accompanied  it.  Every  where  the 
charges  were  reiterated,  Whitney's  and  all,  blasted  as  he 
was,  until  the  people  were  every  where  literally  drugged 
with  them.  In  vain  did  the  press  strive  to  scatter  the  proper 
light  among  the  people.  A  cloud  of  darkness  had  been  raised, 
and  the  power  and  patronage  of  the  Government,  headed  by 
Presidential  authority,  and  guided  by  it,  gave  support  to  those 
who  were  engaged  in  increasing  its  darkness.  It  was  of  no 
avail  that  Congress  passed  its  judgment  of  condemnation  upon 
the  proceedings  of  the  party,  and  upon  Judge  Clayton's  Re- 
port, in  a  re-charter  of  the  Bank.  This,  as  I  have  said,  was 
charged  to  Bank  influence,  and  to  bribery.  Wherever,  and 
whenever  truth,  in  regard  to  these  calumnies,  showed  itself, 
it  was  hacked  and  cut  to  pieces,  and  trampled  in  the  dust. 

At  last,  and  in  1834,  alarmed,  and  justly  so,  at  the  usur- 
pations of  the  President,  and  at  his  disregard  of  Congress,  (and 
feeling  contempt  for  the  President's  slanders  against  that  body) 
of  law,  and  of  justice,  and  witnessing  the  encroachments  by 
the  President  upon  the  constitution.  Judge  Clayton  was  roused 


46 

into  a  review  of  the  part  he  had  acted,  and  stung  with  re- 
morse, no  doubt,  yielded  to  the  most  honourable  impulse  of 
our  nature.  He  rose  in- his  place  in  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives, and  with  his  own  hand  severed  the  head  from  his 
own  report,  and  throwing  its  lifeless  trunk  into  the  arms  of 
the  party,  admonished  it,  President  and  all,  to  ponder  on  what 
they  had  done !  The  following  is  the  speech  on  that  occa- 
sion : 

"Mr.  Speaker,  this  is  the  first  fair  opportunity  that  has  presented  itself 
to  make  satisfaction  for  wrongs  which  I  believe,  I  myself,  have  committed; 
not  from  malice,  for  I  entertain  that  passion  against  no  human  being,  but 
from  an  overwraught  and  incautious  zeal.  In  my  opposition  to  the  Bank, 
on  a  former  occasion,  I  have  carefully  reviewed  my  remarks,  and  find  re- 
flections which  are  unworthy  of  me,  and  the  cause  they  were  designed  to 
support.  They  were  calculated  to  wound  the  feelings  of  many  high  and 
honourable  men,  in,  and  out,  of  the  Bank,  and  if  such  has  been  the  effect, 
I  can  offer  no  higher  reparation  than  the  public  expression  of  my  regret. 
I  retract  every  thing  personal,  whether  in  fact  or  tendency,  &c. — neither 
a  dictate  of  false  pride,  nor  a  dread  of  even  deserved  punishment,  shall 
ever  interpose  between  the  injury,  of  which  I  have  been  the  unguarded 
cause,  and  the  due  retribution  necessary  to  its  full  atonement.  I  do  not 
pretend  that  this  is  a  sentiment  peculiar  to  myself — it  exists  in  every  mind 
to  some  extent,  and,  sooner  or  later,  is  apt  to  exert  its  just  control.  Sir, 
the  day  may  yet  come  when  the  present  chief  magistrate  shall  feel  and 
own  its  sway.  When  he  shall  have  reached  the  repose  of  private  life,  re- 
moved from  the  tempests  of  political  strife — when  he  shall  have  ceased  to 
be  useful  \o  flatterers  and  sycophants,  and  standing  on  the  confine  where 
the  time  past  of  a  long  life  is  to  be  reviewed  in  the  short  span  of  that 
which  is  soon  to  end — if  no  other  wrong,  of  which  he  has  been  the  author, 
shall  extort  his  merited  confession,  that  at  least  to  the  injured  Duane  will 
wring  a  repentant  sigh.  His  imagination  must  wander  into  the  innocent 
family  of  that  abused  individual,  from  whose  quiet  bosom  he  was  reluctantly 
withdrawn,  and  surveying  the  peace  which  he  has  disturbed,  the  feelings 
he  has  tortured,  the  friendship  with  which  he  has  sported,  the  integrity 
he  has  distrusted,  the  independence  he  -has  despised,  and,  above  all,  that 
spotless  reputation  his  minions  have  attempted  to  defame — if  his  heart  shall 
not  obey  the  dictates  of  the  generous  sentiment  I  have  described,  it  will 
be  wanting,  greatly  wanting,  in  a  principle  with  which  even  his  fame  in 
battle  cannot  compare,  and  will  justly  reduce  the  glory  of  his  military  for- 
tunes to  an  empty  pageant." 

This,  it  would  seem,  ought  to  have  sufficed  to  silence  the 
calumny  against  the  Bank.  But  like  all  previous  defeats,  it 
served  only  to  increase  it.     Which  of  the  presses,  in  the  pay 


47 

of  "  the  Government,"  dared  to.  send  this  speech  among  the 
people?  Where  is  the  office-holder  who  dared  to  lift  his  voice 
to  disabuse  those,  into  v^^hose  minds  poison  from  the  Report 
of  Judge  Clayton  had  been  injected  ?  Where  was  the  expect- 
ant in  waiting  for  his  "reward,"  for  the  part  he  had  taken  in 
making  it  tributary  to  the  overthrow  of  the  Bank,  who  did 
not  shut  his  eyes  to  this  speech,  and  continue,  in  spite  of  it, 
to  repeat  the  foul  implications  of  "  the  party"  against  the 
Bank? 

That  the  reader  may  understand  something  of  the  bitter- 
ness of  spirit  which  operated  with  the  majority  of  the  commit- 
tee, of  which  Judge  Clayton  was  Chairman,  against  the  Pre- 
sident of  the  Bank,  who  had  been  brought  out  as  standing  in 
the  attitude  of  personal  hostility  to  General  Jackson,  I  ex- 
tract the  following  from  Mr.  Adams'  report. — Speaking  of 
Mr.  Biddle,  Mr.  Adams  says — 

"No  scruple  had  crossed  the  mind  of  any  President  of  the  United  States 
(during  ten  years)  to  deter  him  from  nominating  him  year  after  year  as  a 
Government  Director.  Not  a  voice  had  ever  been  raised  in  the  Senate  to 
cause  their  hesitation  to  confirm  his  appointment,  and  so  perfectly  in  har- 
mony with  this  confidence,  has  Keen  that  of  the  public,  that  not  a  rumour  has 
ever  been  raised  of  a  prospect,  or  even  of  a  project  for  the  election  of  any 
other  person  as  President  in  bis  place.  After  ten  years  of  fair  fame,  thus 
sustained,  without  an  adverse  whisper  being  heard,  it  has  been  a  source  of 
deep  mortification  to  the  subscriber  to  see  the  character  and  feelings  of 
such  a  citizen  ti'eated  by  a  committee  of  the  House  of  Kepresentatives,  as 
if  he  had  been  an  inmate  fresh  issued  from  a  penitentiary,  to  preside  over 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States!" 

This,  reader,  is  a  specimen  of  the  spirit  of  that  report  which 
Judge  Clayton,  on  reflection,  seized  with  his  own  hand  and 
tore  in  pieces,  and  dashed  to  the  ground,  as  "  unworthy  of 
himself,  and  the  cause  it  was  designed  to  support." 

But  as  I  have  said  it  had  been  circulating  over  the  couo- 
try,  and  poisoning  the  minds  of  the  people  for  about  two  years 
before  its  author  discarded  it.  And  thus  was  public  confi- 
dence sported  with  and  abused!  And  thus  were  the  founda- 
tions of  the  Bank  undermined,  and  thus  its  presiding  officer, 
and  his  associates,  were  covered  all  over  with  party  political 
venom,  its  principal  and  most  disgusting  stream  issuing  from 
the  lips  of  President  Jackson  himself.  •' 

ARISTIDES. 


48 
No.  11. 

^^DirectorsV  exclaigied  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  his  powerful 
speech  in  the  Senate,  on  the  removal  of  the  deposites,  and  in 
reference  to  H.  D.  Gilpin,  John  T.  Sullivan,  Peter  Wager  &. 
Co. — *^ Directors,  did  I  say? — No — ^^  Spies,  is  their  proper 
designation." '  ^ 

I  have  shown  that  Reuben  M'.  Whitney  was  the  chosen 
instrument  of  Col.  Thomas  H.  Benton ;  I  will  now  show  that 
the  "spies"  were  the  chosen  instruments  of  President  Jackson. 
What  sort  of  work  they  were  commissioned  to  perform,  will 
be  exposed  in  the  sequel. 

How  long  these  ^'spies''  had  been  secretly  at  work,  and  in 
conveying  to  their  employer  the  insult  of  their  labours,  and 
under  whose  influence,  I  have  iio  means  of  ascertaining — but 
their  regular,  and  published  commissions,  bear  date,  the  first, 
"April  14,  1833,"  the  second,  "August  3,  1833."  Both  are 
signed  "Andrew  Jackson."  That  there  may  be  no  mistake 
touching  the  object  of  these  commissions,  and  the  nature  of 
the  employment  required  by  them,  I  will  copy  so  much  from 
these  notable  documents  as  will  ilkistrate  both. 

The  following  is  the  whole  of  the  first,  which  is  dated  at 
Washington.  It  is  addressed  to  "Messrs.  Sullivan,  Gilpin, 
and  Wager,  United  States  Bank  Directors." 

— "Your  letter  of  the  8th  instant  has  been  received.     (They  had 

been  at  work,  it  appears.)  In  reply,  I  have  to  remark,  that  the  informa- 
tion requested  is  for  my  own  satisfaction,  and  I  do  not  wish  it  extended 
beyond  the  knowledge  of  the  Government  Directors.  In  case  of  a  gross  vio- 
lation of  the  charter,  it  is  my  duty  to  issue  a  scire  facias  against  the  Bank. 
If  the  CC/"  rumours  I  have  heard  be  true,  it  will  probably  be  incumbent  on 
me  to  do  so;  and  those  rumours  relate  to  proceedings  which  must  have 
come  within  the  personal  knowledge,  or  QIj*  observation,  of  some  of  you. 
If  they  shall  be  confirmed  by  your  report,  I  shall  not  only  be  able  to  judge 
of  my  particular  duty,  but  may,  if  thought  proper,  cause  to  be  made^. 
through  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  that  more  formal  and  thorough  in- 
vestigation" 03^  which  you  suggest. 

"  In  conclusion,  I  would  remark,  that  the  discounts  granted  to  indivi- 
duals, are  not  deemed  to  constitute  those  private  accounts,  which  by  the 
charter  are  so  carefully  guarded?  but  that  provision  only  embraces  the 
debtor,  and  creditor  accounts  of  individuals  on  G;jr'  the  books  of  the  Bank. 
If  any  discounts  be  CORRUPTLY,  or  improperly  granted,  it  is  not  only 


49 

deemed  right,  but,  in  agfgravated  cases,  the  duty  of  the  government  direc- 
tors to  communicate  the  fact  to  THE  GOVERNMENT." 

(Signed)  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

REMARKS  ON  THIS   FIRST  COMMISSION  TO  THE  "SPIES." 

In  the  first  place,  the  information  requested  was  for  the 
President's  own  satisfaction;  but  in  getting  at  it,  he  did  not 
wish  to  excite  the  attention  of  the  other  directors — hence  it 
was  to  be  so  secretly  managed,  as  not  to  extend  beyond  "the 
knowledge  of  the  government  directors." 

In  the  next  place,  the  President  announces  what,  under  a 
particular  state  of  the  case,  he  understands  to  be  his  "-'duty." 
It  is  in  case  of  a  gross  violation  of  the  charter  to  issue  a  scire 
facias.  The  President  has,  in  instances  almost  without  num- 
ber, and  under  forms  as  various  as  the  prismatic  hues,  charged 
upon  the  Bank,  not  dnly  "  a  gross  violation  of  the  charter," 
but  gross  violations  of  it — but  that  keen  sense  of  "  duty"  has 
never  been  suflScient  to  induce  him  to  fulfil  its  requirements. 
The  reason  is  obvious.  There  was  no  evidence  to  commit 
the  Bank.  Hence  no  scire  facig.s  was  sued.  In  the  third 
place,  '■^ rumours^''  had  reached  this  functionary.  This  nobody 
doubts.  They  fell  upon  the  President  like  snow  flakes,  and 
were  made  to  sound  in  his  ears  like  rumbling  thunder.  It 
could  not  have  been  otherwise,  when  he  stood  always  ready 
with  "rewards"  in  his  hand  to  pay  such  as  were  prepared  to 
join  in  his  crusade  against  the  Bank.  He  proceeded  to  pin 
a  knowledge  of  the  truth  of  those  rumours  upon  his  selected 
spies.  He  says  "  they  mtLst  have  come  within  the  personal 
knowledge  or  observation  of  some  of  you."  Not  to  "  know" 
something  of  them  after  that,  would  be  to  belie  the  President; 
and  not  to  have  "  observed''  them,  would  indicate  supineness 
and  inattention.  In  either  case,  they  very  well  knew  they 
would  lose  their  employer's  favour,  and  be  forever  thereafter 
excluded  from  executive  *<  rewards."  So  they  had,  as  the 
sequel  will  show,  to  "know"  even  more  than  had  ever  been 
rumoured,  and  to  have  "observed"  what  had  been  not  only 
the  most  revolting  and  criminal,  but  until  then,  unimaginable 
proceedings,  &,c. 

In  the  fourth  place,  these   "  spies"  had  themselves  been 

r 


50 

secretly  conveying  something,  for  they  had  suggested  before 
their  commission  arrived,  a  thorough  investigation  '*  through 
the  Secretary  of  the  TYeasury." 

In  conclusion,  the  President  shows  that  he  had  been  in  close 
communion  with  Reuben  M.  Whitney.  He  did  not  want  to 
know  any  thing  about  discounts  granted  to  individuals. — 
But  that  (although  "  the  charter  so  carefully  guarded  these 
private  accounts,)  was  afterwards  made  by  the  President, 
through  one  of  his  examining  committees,  an  indispensable 
part  of  the  meditated  examination."  He  wanted,  it  seems, 
to  know  what  discounts  had  been  made  that  had  not  been 
entered  on  the  books  of  the  Bank,  or  which  had  been  "  cor- 
ruptly" or  "improperly"  granted.  Here  then  is  a  direct  re- 
ference to  the  cases  of  which  I  have  treated  in  No.  9,  and 
which  Reuben  M.  Whitney  swore  so  awfully  about. 

These  are  the  sort  of  things  the  President  considers  his,  by 
telling  the  "spies"  it  was  their  duty  to  communicate  to  the  "go- 
vernment"^— that  is,  to  Andrew  Jackson,  for  he  said  he  want- 
ed this  information  for  his  own  satisfaction. 

This  then  is  the  first  commission.  The  reader  will  be  at 
no  loss  to  understand  its  scope  and  object.  Now  for  so  much 
of  the  second  as  may  further  illustrate  the  first.  This  is  dated 
at  the  "Rip  Raps,  August  3,  1833."  It  is  addressed  also  to 
Messrs.  Sullivan,  Gilpin  and  Wager. 

•'Gentlemen, — I  am  informed  that  there  is  a  book  of  expenses  kept  at 
the  Bank,  which  comes  before  the  dividend  committee  semi-annually.  If 
any  of  you  have  had,  or  can  have  access  to  that  book,  I  should  be  glad  to 
learn  what  were  the  expenses  of  the  last  year,  and  also  the  preceding  year, 
and  for  what  particulars  incurred.  All  directors  have  a  right  to  see,  and 
inspect  this  book,  and  if  it  is  refused  to  CC/"the  Kovr-nNMENT  Diiitcxocs, 
(^report  the  same  to  ME. 

"  Mr.  Walsh  admitted  in  his  paper,  that  his  publisher  had  received  about 
$1,000  for  printing  newspapers,  calculated  to  operate  on  Xj"  ^^c  elections. 
This  leads  me  to  believe  that  a  considerable  sum  of  the  expenses  of  the 
Bank  has  been  incurred  in  this  way." 

The  President  goes  on  then  to  expatiate  upon  "  his  duty,'* 
and  to  tell  his  "spies"  what  agency  he  is  bound  to  exercise  over 
the  business  of  the  Bank ;  he  then  says: — 

fl  desire  tliat  you  will  obtain  and  furnish  me  a  statement  of  the  Bank 


51 

account  of  expenses.  They  are  the  accounts  of  «  public  institution's  ex- 
penditures, upon  the  honest  and  proper  appropriation  of  whicli  must  de- 
pend, to  some  extent,  the  confidence  which  the  ad^rtinistrators  of  Govern- 
ment may  feel  at  liberty  to  repose  in  it.  I  should  consider  it  proper,  and 
even  OC/"  YOUR  DUTY,  if  an  examination  of  these  accounts  should  be  de- 
nied, by  the  officer  keeping  them,  to  demand  a  view  of  them  by  motion  at 
the  board  of  directors.  If  it  be  refused,  then  report  the  same  forthwith  to 
ME — and,  at  the  same  time,  give  me  all  the  information  and  knowledge, 
in  regard  to  the  accounts  which  you  may  have  acquired  in  the  discharge 
of  your  duty,  as.  directors,"  &c. 

(Signed)  ANDREW  JACKSON. 

REMARKS  ON  THIS  SECOND  COMMISSION  TO  THE  "  SPIES." 

In  the  first  place  we  are  to  infer,  that  if  General  Jackson 
had  not  been  "  informed"  that  the  Bank  kept  an  expense  ac- 
count, he  would  never  have  considered  such  a  book  as  mak- 
ing part  of  its  records !  In  the  next  place  he  seems  to  con- 
sider it  an  affair  of  so  mysterious  and  private  a  character,  as 
to  make  it  doubtful  whether  the  "spies"  had,  or  could  have 
access  to  it.  He  seems  to  have  fancied  that  the  discoveries 
to  which  that  mysterious  *'  expense  book"  would  lead,  would 
not  only  conclude  the  whole  matter  of  the  Bank's  iniquity, 
but  that  these  secret  sins,  when  discovered,  would  be  of  a 
character  so  damning  as  to  enable  "  the  Government,"  whe- 
ther at  Washington  or  the  Rip  Raps,  to  whistle  down  the 
Bank  in  a  jiffy.  This  expense  book  was  a  beautiful  vision, 
that  some  wag  had  "informed"  the  President  was  kept  by  the 
Bank,  and  of  the  existence  of  which  he  hastened  to  inform  the 
spies.  "Get  that  book,  if  you  can — you  have  a  right  to  see 
it,  and  to  inspect  it — and  in  case  of  its  being  refused  to  the 
Government  directors,  report  the  same  to  me  !" 

Thunder  and  lightning !  what  vengeance  was  gathered 
under  that  idea  of  refusal ! ! !  It  needed  only  for  the  Govern- 
ment Directors  to  report  that  it  was  refused  to  them  for  the 
lightning  of  Jackson's  wrath  to  break  out  and  consume  the 
whole  concern.  ^^ Report  the  same  to  MET''  When  the 
book  was  all  the  while  as  open  to  all  the  directors,  as  was  the 
light  of  Heaven.     This  indeed  was  a  tempest  in  a  tea  pot. 

In  the  next  place,  among  YAe  rumours  that  had  reached 
the  President,  was  one  of  a  most  unforgiving  character.    A 


52 

thousand  dollars  he  says  upon  the  admission  of  Mr.  Walsh, 
had  been  paid  to  him  for  pjinting  newspapers.  Out  of  this 
pops  the  inference,  that  "a  considerable  sum  of  the  expenses 
of  the  bank  has  been  incurred  in  this  way  for  the  purpose  of 
Q^  operating  on  the  elections!^^  The  reader  may  be  sur- 
prised, perhaps,  on  being  assured,  that  Mr.  Walsh  never  ad- 
mitted any  such  thins^H! 

We  shall  see  in  the  sequel  what  a  marvellous  use  the 
"  spies"  made  of  this  expense  book,  and  how  grateful  their 
returns  were  to  "the  government."  The  only  "duty"  of  the 
President  growing  out  of  his  relations  to  the  bank,  was  that 
which  bound  him,  in  the  event  of  a  violation  of  its  charter, 
to  sue  out  a  scire  facias.  Yet  we  find  him  tumbling  Uke  a 
blind  man  pursued  by  an  alligator,  or  stung  by  reptiles,  into 
apartments  where  his  presence  was  no  more  justifiable  than 
would  be  that  of  an  elephant,  whose  keeper  should  lead  this 
unwieldly  beast  into  the  President's  own  drawing  room. 

Yet  harping  upon  the  doubt  whether  his  *'  spies"  could  get 
a  sight  of  these  accounts,  that  were  as  open  to  them,  as  was 
the  door  through  which  they  entered  to  take  their  seats  at 
the  board,  he  enforces  it,  as  a  "duty"  binding  them,  "should 
they  be  denied,  not  by  the  board  of  directors  only,  but  even 
**  the  officer  keeping  them,"  to  report  the  same  forthwith  to 
him! — And  lastly,  whether  they  can  get  a  sight  of  them  or 
not,  (for  such  is  the  sense  of  the  reading,)  the  "spies"  are  re- 
quired to  give  all  the  information  and  knowledge,  in  regard 
to  them,  which  they  may  have  acquired. 

Having  thus  opened  the  way,  and  shown  the  sort  of  power, 
and  whence  it  emanated,  which  was  conferred  on  the  **spies," 
I  shall  in  my  next  proceed  to  show  how  faithfully  and  satis- 
factorily to  every  thing  except  honour,  justice  and  truth, 
they  executed  the  trust  reposed  in  them. 

ARISTIDES. 


53 

No.  12. 

I  have  shown  the  commissions  under  which  the  '*  spies" 
acted.  It  were  difficult  to  conceive  it  possible,  on  a  review 
of  them,  how  men,  professing  to  be  honourable,  and  to  be  in- 
fluenced by  those  principles  which  uphold  the  moral  and  so- 
cial compacts,  could,  for  a  single  moment,  hesitate  as  to  thei 
course  which  it  became  them  fo  pursue;  or  question  the  obli- 
gation which  the  spirit  and  object  of  the  commissions  imposed 
upon  them — which  was,  indignantly  and  with  contempt,  to 
throw  them  under  their  feet.  It  is  not  possible  to  conceive 
how,  without  some  overpowering  inducement,  the  work  re- 
quired to  be  performed  could  be  undertaken.  Subsequent 
events  demonstrate  what  that  inducement  was.  As  in  the 
case  of  Sullivan,  who  was  'rewarded'  for  the  part  he  took,  by 
Presidential  favouf,  and  by  official  station  and  emoluments 
as  paymaster  in  the  army;  so  has  Mr.  Gilpin,  the  active  spi- 
rit of  the  league,  in  the  nomination  for  the  office  of  Governor 
of  Michigan.  It  is  true,  Ihe  Senate  rejected  both.  But  his- 
tory has  not  been  more  faithful  in  recording  the  price  for 
which  Judas  agreed  to  betray  his  Lord,  and  that  for  which 
Arnold  consented  to  sell  his  struggling  and  bleeding  country, 
than  it  will  be  in  recording  the  nature  of  the  '  rewards'  for 
which  the  'spies'  consented  to  obey  the  requisition  of  Presi- 
dent Jackson.  Even  General  Jackson  questioned  the  propriety 
of  his  demands  upon  these  men.  He  certainly  saw  the  de- 
grading nature  of  the  work  in  which  he  sought  to  enli|t  their 
services,  and  apprehending  that  they  might  refuse  to  comply, 
enforced  his  claims  upon  them  by  insisting  that  obedience  on 
their  part  was  their  'duty.'  The  same  as  if  he  had  said — 
*I  know,  gentlemen,  this  is  a  low  business — that  it  involves 
degrading  services — the  character  and  offices  of  a  spy,  no 
man  knows  better  how  to  appreciate  than  I  do — but,  gentle- 
men, there  are  times  when  the  country  needs  the  services  of 
spies — in  which  emergency,  it  is  'the  duty'  of  those  who  love 
their  country  to  engage  even  in  such  employment.  'The 
party'  is  menaced.  The  Bank  has  made  war  upon  it.  *Ru- 
mours'  confirm  this.     I  exact  it  of  you,  therefore,  as  'Govern- 


54 

ment  Directors,'  to  engage  in  the  service  I  have  planned.  I 
need  not  repeat  to  you  my  maxim — 1  WILL  REWARD  MY 
FRIENDS — nor  hint  to  you,  (having  read  the  Scriptures,) 
that  '  they  who  are  not  for  us,  are  against  us' — and  if  you 
refuse  to  be  'for  us'  in  this  business,  especially  where  'duty' 
binds  you,  you  will  be  numbered  with  my  enemies  and  *  pun- 
ished' accordingly.  .For  Andrew  Jackson  'rewards  his  friends, 
and  punishes  his  enemies." 

The  revelatiop  of  the  President's  will  being  thus  made,  and 
being  fully  invested  with  his  commissions,  and  after  consulta- 
tion and  agreement,  as  to  the  course  they  should  pursue  in 
the  SECRET  examination  now  to  be  made  of  the  acts  of  the 
Bank,  and  especially  of  the  'Book  of  Expenses,'  the  spies  be- 
gan the  work. 

I  fancy  I  see  them  enter  the  Bank.  They  are  mailed  in 
Presidential  authority — but  a  cloak  o{  searesy  is  thrown  over 
it  and  them.  They  seat  themselves  at  the  board,  and  bow, 
and  smile,  and  pass  round  among  their  unsuspecting  and  ho- 
nourable associates,  the  usual  salutitions.  Not  a  whisper  of 
their  design  is  breathed  to  any  other  Director  of  the  Bank, 
whilst  each  of  these  honourable  men  sit  in  unsuspecting  con- 
fidence by  their  sides.  Stealthily  do  they  go  to  work.  This 
part  of  their  commission  was  never  for  a  moment  lost  sight  of. 
All  was  to  be  "confined  to  the  knowledge  of  the  Government 
Directors."  There,  too,  were  the  officers  of  the  Bank,  each 
employed*  at  his  desk,  faithfully  and  honourably,  and  without 
suspicion.  Even  the  clerk  who  had  attracted  so  much  of 
General  Jackson's  attention,  and  who  was  looked  upon  in  the 
light  of  some  stiff,  uncomplying  confidential  fellow,  who  it 
was  thought  was  the  sworn  keeper  of  that  'expense  book,' 
not  even  did  he  suspect  who  they  were  that  were  coming  in 
and  going  out,  wearing  the  exterior  of  Directors  of  the  Bank, 
when  in  fact  they  were  the  secret  and  commissioned  spies  of 
Andrew  Jackson !  Never  did  sleeping  innocence  lie  in  more 
unconscious  state,  when  the  robber  hung  over  her  with  the 
drawn  dagger,  to  strike  home  the  fatal  blow,  should  she  awake 
to  consciousness,  and  to  a  sight  of  the  ravages  that  were  going 
on,  than  did  the  President  and  the  other  Directors  of  the  Bank, 


55 

and  its  officers  and  clerks,  when  these  "  spies"  were  secretly 
and  silently  engaged  in  picking  out  from  the  acts  of  the  board, 
and  from  that  "  expense  book,"  such  items  as  they  supposed 
would  most  effectually  serve  their  employer,  and  gratify  his 
taste,  and  bring  down  destruction  upon  the  Bank,  and  all  that 
related  to  it !  " 

For  nearly  two  months  were  these  men  thus  employed,  be- 
fore their  unsuspecting  associates  were  awakened  to  an  obser- 
vation of  what  was  going  on.  During  this  period,  it  is  not 
given  to  mortal  man  to  know  what  shifts  and  doubles  were 
resorted  to  by  the  "spies;"  nor  how,  when  an  occasional  ray 
from  the  almost  extinguished  light  of  honour,  would  dart  in 
upon  their  minds,  they  recoiled  from  the  business  they  had 
undertaken.  How  stirring,  sometimes,  was  a  glance  from 
President  Biddle's  eye !  How  cutting  the  rebuke,  when  the 
honest  labours  of  th/s  other  Directors,  (headed  by  their  effi- 
cient President,  all  of  whom  the  "  spies"  knew  to  be  honour- 
able men,)  were  witnessed.  Meeting  the  first,  there  was  no 
alternative  but  to  drum  with  the  fingers  on  the  table,  or  per- 
haps to  whistle ;  aiid  on  beholding  the  last,  to  bow,  or  yawn. 
Or  when  a  clerk  would  pass,  and  they  were  hurrying  secretly 
through  the  papers,  hunting  for  items,  there  would  be  a  sud- 
den huddling  of  the  whole  together,  and  a  bow,  accompanied 
with  a  smile,  or  some  act  to  turn  aside  suspicion  as  to  what 
these  men  were  about. 

At  last,  and  at  about  the  expiration  of  the  eighth  week  of 
such  labours,  the  newspapers  revealed  the  plot?  Instantly 
the  cloaks  which  had  hitherto  secreted  their  design,  f^l  off; 
and  the  "spies"  had  to  meet  their  associates  in  their  true 
character.  They  were,  it  is  true,  screened  by  their  commis- 
sions. These  furnished  but  a  flimsy  shield,  however,  against 
the  justly  excited  indignation,  which  all  men  feel,  when  a  spy 
is  detected  in  the  camp.  Flash  after  flash,  like  lightning, 
blazed  in  upon  the  consciences  of  these  men ;  and  a  deadly 
sinking  of  all  the  moral  energies  foreboded  the  judgment,  not 
of  the  board,  only,  but  of  all  civilized  and  christian  people. 
This  was  a  horrible  hour !  But  the  best  was  to  be  made  of 
it.     About  the  persons  of  the  spies  hung  dangling  the  items 


56 

they  had  abstracted,  thus^  secretly,  from  the  records  of  the 
Bank;  and  in  their  faces  was  visible  that  peculiar  hue,  which 
succeeds  detection.  What  now  was  left  for  these  truly  un- 
fortunate men  ?  Nothing  but  confession !  That  was  made 
in  the  declaration  that  "^7  was  feared,  if  they  had  avowed 
their  objecft,  the  Board  would  not  have  permitted  its  exe- 
cuiionP' 

A  report  of  their  proceedings  was  now  to  be  made  to  their 
employer.  Any  undertaking  commenced,  and  prosecuted 
under  such  hurried  and  flurried  circumstances,  could  not,  of 
course,  be  well  done.  There  could  be  neither  order,  regu- 
larity or  correctness.  They  had,  however,  kept  the  secret, 
and  that  is  the  first  duty  of  a  spy.  President  Jackson  could 
not  reproach  them  with  divulging  it.  But  it  seems  to  have 
been  thought,  even  by  themselves,  that  what  they  had  done, 
was  not  well  done.  Hence  the  "  spies"  §peak  of  "  the  want 
of  time" — and  of  the  "labour,"  which  the  mode  imposed  upon 
them  required.  They  could  only  prosecute  their  object,  they 
say,  as  they  had  "time,  and  opportunity."  "  TIME  and  OP- 
PORTUNITY!" These  words,  in  such  like  business,  are 
extremely  ominous,  as  well  as  confessional.  What  else  does 
the  highwayman  seek?  Any  thing  but  "time  and  opportu- 
nity!" or  the  slanderer,  or  calumniator — do  they  not  seek  for 
"time  and  opportunity^" — It  was  all  that  Arnold  wanted,  when 
he  sought  the  services  of  Andre.  Both  occurred,  but  "time" 
was  denied  the  unfortunate  youth  to  escape  with  the  hellish 
plot  of  his  seducer ;  and  "opportunity"  was  refused  him  to  get 
out  of  the  hands  of  the  three  patriots  who  intercepted,  and 
captured  him. 

The  *'  spies"  say,  they  made  '^  enquiries,  but  they  were 
partial.'''  Of  course,  if  they  had  been  general,  there  would 
have  been  a  disclosure ;  and  then  the  truth,  and  the  whole 
truth,  would. have  been  told,  which  was  exactly,  as  the  sequel 
will  prove,  what  these  men  were  not  in  quest  of,  and  what 
their  employer  did  not  want.  When,  however,  they  came 
across  any  expenditures,  they  take  care  to  say  they  were 
'^discovered  by  US." — As  a  matter  of  course,  then,  the  infer- 
ence was  intended  to  be  incontrovertible,  that  they  had  been 


57 

concealedliefore !  Sometimes,  when  they  requested  any  thing 
of  the  board — not  as  spies — but  as  directors,  and  the  good 
sense  of  the  board  led  it  to  withhold  its  assent,  why  then  they 
excuse  themselves,  by  saying,,  they  had  "  to  depend  on  their 
own  partial  enquiries." 

From  this  very  partial  picture,  the  reader  may-infer,  how 
much  of  honour  actuated  these  men.  I  will  pursue  the  sub- 
ject in  my  next. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  13. 

Is  it  necessary  that  I  should  inform  the  reader  that,  in  dis- 
cussing the  acts  of  public  men,  the  actors  must,  themselves,  be 
spoken  of?  Can  the  criminal  be  separated  from  his  crime? 
Or  if  he  can,  ought  he  to  be?  Who  can  separate  the  shadow 
from  the  substance?  Tell  me  not  of  that  mawkish  sensibility 
that,  when  the  acts  of  public  men  are  spoken  of,  would  whis- 
per "sile7ice"  as  the  names  of  the  perpetrators  are  about  to 
be  pronounced.  If  men  in  official  stations  will  employ  them- 
selves in  undermining  the  great  principles  of  honour,  of  justice, 
and  of  truth,  let  them  not  take  it  amiss  when  public  opinion 
resolves  to  hold  them  responsible  for  such  outrage^.  Those 
who  would  throw  over  such  the  mantle  of  concealment,  little 
think  how  much  they  contribute  to  destroy  those  safe-guards 
upon  which  society  has  been  taught  to  rely  for  protection 
against  wrong  and  outrage.  What !  hide  the  public  plunderer 
from  the  public  gaze — separate  him  from  all  connexion  with 
the  public  judgment — and  denounce  his  acts  only? — discourse 
only  about  the  evil  he  may  have  committed,  and  not  name  the 
author  of  it?  Establish  this  doctrine,  and  where,  1  ^k,  shall 
we  go  for  a  shield  to  protect  either  property,  character,  or 
life? 

I  have  named  "the  Government  Directors"  whom  President 
Jackson  employed  to  perform  the  office  of  "spies."  1  have 
shown  by  their  commissions,  under  which  they  consented  to 
act,  and  did  act,  that  the  "duty"  required  of  them  was  to  be 


58        \ 

performed  secretly^  and  withoujt  the  knowledge  of  the  other 
Directors.  These  commissions  required  it  of  those  to  whom 
they  were  addressed,  to  spy  out,  and  report  to  Andrew  Jack- 
son, such  acts  as  "rumour"  had  informed  him  the  Bank  was 
guilty  of,  which  acts,  he  took  special  care  to  tell  his  "spies," 
they  must  know  something  about.  Believing  that  these  men 
moved  Andrew  Jackson  to  commit  upon  the  Bank  the  outrage 
he  did,  in  the  removal  of  the  Deposits,  and  in  separating  the 
ties  which  bound  him  to  the  laws,  and  the  laws  to  him,  I  con- 
sider it  a  high  and  solemn  duty,  in  some  one,  to  trace  out  their 
conduct,  and  expose  the  means  they  adopted  to  produce  such 
a  result.  Public  justice  requires  this.  The  violated  rights  of 
the  Bank  plead  for  it.  The  assailed  characters  of  the  Presi- 
dent and  officers  of  the  Bank,  have  a  high  claim  to  be  vindi- 
cated, and  the  violated  honour  of  the  nation  demands  it. 

I  have  said  these  men  moved  Andrew  Jackson  to  commit 
the  outrage  he  did  commit  on  the  Bank.  I  derive  my  proof 
from  himself.  He  says,  explicitly,  that  the  reports  of  these 
men,  to  him,  decided  the  question  in  his  mind,  and  produced 
the  resolve  to  remove  the  deposits.  How  fearful,  then,  is  the 
responsibility  that  rests  upon  th'em! 

I  have,  in  my  last,  given  a  glimpse  of  the  honour  which  ac- 
tuated these  "men,  in  "the  mode'^  they  consented  to  adopt  in 
complying  with  the  terms  of  their  commissions.  Let  us  look, 
for  a  moment,  at  the  relations  in  which  they  stand  to  Justice 
and  Truth. 

Justice!  What  is  it?  That  principle,  I  answer,  which 
prompts  a  man  to  do  to  others,  that,  which  he  would  have 
others  do  to  him.  Let  us  try  the  "spies,"  first,  by  this  stand-  , 
ard.  They  knew,  that  a  party  political  spirit  was  excited 
against  the  Bank  and  its  officers,  particularly  its  President. 
They  k»ew  also  that  this  spirit  was  vindictive.  They  had  all 
witnessed  the  course  which  their  own  party  had  taken  to  de- 
stroy the  Bank,  and  implicate  the  honour  of  its  officers.  There 
was  not  one  of  them  that  did  not  know  that  all  this  was  the 
result  of  a  refusal  on  the  part  of  the  Bank  to  lend  itself  as  an 
instrument  to  promote  the  ends  of  "the  party."  They  were, 
as  "Government  Directors,"  in  a  situation,  in  which,  they 


59 

could  increase  this  excitement,  or  allay  it.  Justice,  under 
such  circumstances,  made  to  them  a  direct  appeal.  On  their 
report,  on  the  truth  or  falsehood  of  the  charges,  was  destined 
to  turn,  the  personal  and  official  judgment  of  their  employer. 
Facts,  under  such  circumstances,  ought  alone  to  have  been  re- 
sorted to.  They  were  alone  competent  to  decide  the  ques- 
tion. Here  then  stood  these  men.  Can  the  reader  conceive 
a  position  more  responsible,  or  one  in  which  honour,  and  justice, 
and  truth,  could  all  more  effectually  comljine,  to  enforce  their 
demands.  They  were  made  by  their  position,  and  by  their 
commission  (as  they  chose  to  respect  it  as  such,  and  act  un- 
der it)  not  the  judges  only,  but  executioners  of  the  Bank!  I 
know  Col.  Benton  claims  this  honour — but  Andrew  Jackson 
awards  it  to  his  "spies."     He  says,  they  decided  him. 

I  fancy  I  see  these  men  when  engaged  in  writing  their  re- 
port to  President  Jackson.  Before  their  judgment  passed  the 
claims  of  the  stockholders,  who  were  entitled  to  all  the  benefit 
which  a  just  and  true  report  would  ensure  to  them.  By  one 
dash  of  the  pen,  the  value  of  the  stock  was  to  be  affected.  If, 
for  the  Bank,  it  would  enhance  it;  if  against  it,  the  stock  would 
be  depressed.  The  government  was  here  interested,  or  in 
other  words,  the  people,  for  they  held  a  fifth  of  the  stock. 
Then  came  the  characters  of  the  officers  of  the  Bank.  These 
had  been  assailed — deeply.  Next  came  the  general  embar- 
rassments of  the  whole  country,  the  failure  of  men,  and  the 
necessarily  prostrating  effects  that  must  attend  upon  the 
withdrawal  of  fifty  millions  from  the  circulating  currency  of 
the  country.  The  hammer  of  the  Auctioneer  was  seen  to 
rise  and  to  fall;  the  rich  were  seen  buying  Up  the  buildings 
and  other  property,  at  a  reduced  price,  which  the  mechanic 
had  built,  and  purchased,  partly  on  credit,  for  his  family — 
manufacturers  were  seen  to  stop,  and  commerce  toblanguish 
— and  public  confidence  every  where  shaken,  and  men  every 
where  in  embarrassment  and  trouble!  All  this,  and  more, 
was  present,  when  the  report  was  to  be  made.  There  was, 
no  doubt,  an  occasional  twinge  of  the  conscience,  as  one  after 
another  of  the  points  were  decided  on — and  when  it  was  de- 
termined so  to  colour  the  report  as  to  convince  General  Jack- 


60 

son  that  he  was  right,  and  the  Bank  was  all,  and  a  good  deal 
more  than  he  had  suspected,  even  when  assisted  by  his  "ru- 
mours," there  "was,  doubtless,  that  shiver  felt,  which  attends 
upon  men's  last  agonies,  when  they  die  a  forced  and  ignomi- 
nious death! 

The  report  signed,  and  the  work  done,  it  only  remained  for 
the  "spies"  to  watch  the  effects  of  that  mildew  which  they 
knew  it  would  enable  the  President  to  breathe  over  all  that 
related  to  the  Bank  and  its  affairs. 

Let  the  reader  pause  hgre  for  a  moment,  and  contemplate 
the  position  of  the  Government  Directors,  and  their  power  for 
evil,  and  for  good,  and  ask  himself  if  an  obligation  was  ever 
more  binding,  or  more  holy  upon  men  to  do  JUSTICE. 
There  lives  not  a  stockholder,  nor  an  officer  of  the  Bank,  that 
would  not  have  said,  *^Jiisiicef  gentlemen,  is  all  ice  ask." 
But  was  it  justice  to  go  in  and  out  for  eight  weeks,  with  the 
other  Directors,  appearing  to  be  of  them,  and  watching,  like 
them,  over  the  great  interests  of  the  Bank,  with  which  were 
so  intimately  connected,  the  great  interests  of  the  country, 
when  they  were  employed,  under  a  secret  commission,  in  ab- 
stracting detached  items  from  the  records  of  the  Bank,  upon 
which  to  base  charges  for  its  condemnation? — Was  this  act- 
ing in  conformity  to  that  golden  rule,  "as' ye  would  that  men 
should  do  to  you,  do  ye  evenso  to  them!"  Was  it  not  rather 
a  subversion  of  that  rule''     Was  it  not  rank  injustice? 

If  the  other  directors  had  been  convicted  felons,  in  league, 
t^ach  with  the  other,  to  exclude  their  acts  from  all  eyes  but 
their  own,  and  the  government  directors  had  reason  to  be- 
lieve such  to  be  the  fact,  and  that  their  acts  were  working 
prejudicial  efiects  to  the  Bank, and  to  the  interests  of  the  stock- 
holders, then  it  would  have  been  their 'duty'  to  adopt  any 
practical  mode  to  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  the  real  condition 
of  the  Bank,  and  of  the  conduct  of  its  managers.  But  were 
the  President,  and  Directors,  such  men?  On  the  contrary, 
were  they  not,  and  are  they  not,  all  of  them,  honourable 
men — capable  men — and  did  they  not  then,  and  do  they  not 
now  devote  themselves  to  promote  the  interests  of  the  stock- 
holders, and  the  welfare  of  the  dealers  of  the  Bank?     Were 


61 

they  not  even  then,  as  now,  careful  to  watch  the  calumnies 
that  were  sent  among  the  people  to  injure  the  Bank,  and  to 
send  truth  after  them,  as  fast  as  they  couM,  to  neutralize,  and, 
if  possible,  put  a  stop  to  their  ruinous  tendency  and  effects? 
Are  not  these  gentlemen,  in  a  word,  in  all  their  private,  and 
social,  and  official  relations,  among  the  most  estimable  of  our 
race?  Then  what  do  these  high  minded  and  honourable  men 
say  of  the  reports  of  the  "spies"  to  their  employer?  But  first, 
what  did  the  "spies"  report?  Why,  among  other  things,  that 
theip  examination  which  President  Jackson  referred  to  them 
to  make,  [I  have  shown  in  my  last  what  sort  of  'examination' 
it  was,  and  how  it  was  conducted]  {f;[7°'Undoubtedly  presents 
circumstances  which  in  our  opinion,  warrant  the  belief  you 
have  been  led  to  entertain.'  And  what  was  that  belief?  Why, 
that  the  Bank  had  employed  itself  and  its  means  in  a  way  to 
influence  the  elections — General  Jackson's  re-election,  among 
the  rest. 

The  sole  object  of  their  commission  was  to  elicit  something 
on  which  the  press,  urged  on  by  General  Jackson,  might  rest 
the  charge.  Every  circumstance,  therefore,  had  a  channel 
cut  for  it,  to  swell  the  general  tide  upon  this  point.  Com- 
plaints were  made  against  the  other  Directors.  They  were 
charged  with  concealments,  &c.  In  a  word,  every  thing  was 
reported  that  could  be  made  subservient  to  the  ggeat  end,  viz: 
an  implication  of  the  Bank  on  the  charge  of  having  inter- 
fered in  the  elections.  I  could  prove  this  by  numerous  qu%t 
tations.  The  reader  may  find  what  I  say  substantially  con- 
firmed in  the  report  of  the  "spies"  to  tiieir  employer. 
What  say  the  other  Directors? 

"Nothing  was  concealed — no  one  designed  to  conceal — 

no  one  could  conceal  this  whole  matter.  The  resolutions  of  the  board 
were  on  the  minutes — the  expenses  under  them  were  all  reco/'ded  in  the 
book — the  vouchers  all  referred  to,  by  number,  in  that  book;  and  all  of 
them,  minutes,  expense  book,  and  vouchers,  were  OCj'ALWAYS  to  be 
seen  and  examined  by  the  Directors,  so  that  the  whole  process  of  disco- 
very was  to  (Cj'ask  for  the  books  and  vouchers,  and  to  receive  them." 

Is  there  a  man  living  that  doubts  the  truth  of  this?  Not 
one  to  whom  the  character  of  the  Directors  is  known,  on 
whose  veracity  the   statement  rests.     There  was  the  open 


63 

door,  into  which  honourable  men  would  have  preferred  to 
enter.  But  truth  was  not  the  object  of  either  President  Jack- 
son or  his  "spies."  If  it  had  been,  why  did  he  enjoin  secrcsy 
on  them;  and  why,  with  these  means  all  open  to  their  inspec- 
tion, did  they  choose  to  climb  up  some  other  way?  President 
Jackson  knew,  and  his  *'spies"  knew,  that  the  truth  would  be 
death  to  the  scheme,  which  was  to  implicate  the  Bank  on  the 
charge  I  have  named,  of  interfering  to  control  the  elections. 
This  was,  as  I  have  said,  the  great  object;  and  for  t-his  duty 
were  the  "spies"  set  to  work. 

Now  let  us  see  what  sort  of  use  they  made  of  one  sum. 
They  say:  "Under  the  head  of  stationary  and  printing,  they 
have  discovered  charges  for  the  first  half  of  the  year  1831, 
amounting  to  the  enormous  sum  of  $29,979  92."  The  in- 
ference intended  to  be  conveyed  t6  General  Jackson  was,  that 
this  "enormous  sum"  bore  on  the  point  of  their  enquiry,  and 
that  it  had  been  employed  in  connection  with  the  charge  of 
interfering  in  elections. 

Well,  reader,  how  do  you  suppose  this  "enormous  sum"  was 
expended?  and  for  what?     1  will  tell  you. 
Si 080  32  was  for  common  stationary, 

"     printing  blank  forms  and  rules, 

"     books, 

"     newspapers, 

"     engraving  bank  notes, 

"     paper, 

"     silk  for  making  paper, 

"    sheeting  for    do. 

"     silks  do. 

silks  do. 

subscription  to  the  Coffee  House. 

$13,678  42  ■ 

Well,  now,  how  much  of  these  items,  which,  I  assure  the 
reader,  forms  part  of  the  'enormous  sum'  of  f  29, 979  92,  is  it 
believed  was  expended  with  the  remotest  design  to  operate  on 
the  elections?  Look  at  the  items.  Sullivan,  one  of  the  Go- 
vernment Directors,  who  signed  the  report  that  carried  this 


443  76 

267 

68 

179 

91. 

4178  37 

^   300 

00 

2886 

67 

1421 

94 

2121 

64 

788 

13 

10 

00 

63 

'enormous  sum'  to  General  Jackson,  and  which  was  sent  pur- 
posely to  implicate  the  Bank  in  the  charge  I  have  stated,  had 
himself  received  of  these  very  expenditures,  under  one  of  its 
heads,  $302  37 ! ! !  But  every  item,  no  matter  to  whom  paid, 
or  for  what  paid,  or  by  whom  received,  was  essential  to  swell 
the  sum,  and  make  the  amount  'enormous' — hence,  although 
he  had  put  §302  37  in  his  own  pocket,  for  articles  in  his  own 
line  of  business,  furnished  the  Bank,  hg  was  willing  that  it 
should  form  part  of  the  'enormous  sym'  that  the  President 
was  left  to  INFER  the  Bank  had  paid  in  furthering  the  ends  of 
those  who  opposed  the  election  of  Andrew  Jackson,  and  of  his 
party.  I  will  not  stop  to  inquire  where  a  man's  conscience, 
or  sense  of  common  honesty,  is,  who  would  lend  himself  to  such 
an  act  as  this. 

The  balance  of  the  )g29,000  and  odd,  had  about  as  little  to 
do  with  controlling  elections,  as  that  which  was  expended,  as 
above  stated.  Nearly  $4000  of  the  residue  was  paid  for  print- 
ing and  circulating  Mr.  Gallatin's  able  work  on  Banking;  and 
the  residue  on  documents  essential  to  be  sent  among  the  people 
to  disabuse  them  of  falsehoods  uttered  by  President  Jackson 
against  the  Bank,  and  reiterated  by  his  presses  and  his  party 
— ^but  for  which  falsehoods,  and  the  levelling  doctrines  on 
which  they  were  made  to  rest,  there  would  not  have  been  one 
cent  expended.  The  crime  is,  to  be  sure,  a  curious  one,  that 
is  so  constituted  by  the  act  of  an  individual,  or  corporation, 
taking  measures  to  repel  calumny  and  refute  injurious  and 
vicious  falsehoods. 

I  have  some  other  facts  and  figures  for  my  nexti  in  further 
illustration  of  this  subject,  and  demonstrative  of  the  absence 
from  the  consciences  of  these  men  of  both  justice  and  truth, 
tvhile  in  the  performance  of  the  service  assigned  to  them  by 

President  Jackson. 

• 

ARISTIDES. 


64 

No.  14. 

I  am  aware  that  the  light  in  which  *  the  government  direc- 
tors' are  put,  is  repulsive.  I  know,  also,  it  is  calculated  to 
excite  sympathy — but  it  can,  of  course,  be  that  species  of 
sympathy  ow/y,  which  men  feel  for  the  criminal,  when  the 
sentence  of  the  law,  which  he  has  violated,  is  enforced.  But 
shall  this  species  of  sympathy  be  permitted  to  operate  as 
a  shield  to  interfere  between  the  culprit  and  his  merited 
punishment?  He  who  says  yes,  has  not  well  considered  the 
subject.  It  had  just  as  well  be  decided,  that  there  ought  to 
be  NO  law;  or,  what  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  no  penalty. 
What  is  a  law  without  a  penalty  ?  And  what  are  both  law 
and  penalty,  if  they  be  not  enforced. 

Does  the  reader  think,  I  do  not  myself  feel  deeply  for  these 
"spies?"  If  he  do,  he  wrongs  me.  I  do,  from  my  very 
soul  pity  them!  But  having  undertaken  this  business  of  de- 
monstrating the  wrong,  and  outrage,  that  have  been  committed 
on  one  of  the  best  fiscal  agents  that  this  or  any  other  country 
ever  possessed,  and  through  it,  upon  the  rights  and  interests 
of  its  stockholders,  and  the  character  of  men,  and  upon  the 
general  prosperity,  painful  as  it  is,  I  shall  proceed,  until  I  make 
manifest  to  all  who  are  intelligent  and  honest,  (I  expect  no- 
thing from  the  fool  or  the  knave,)  that  a  most  damning  fraud 
has  been  committed  by  *the  party,'  through  its  instruments, 
upon  that  fiscal  agent;  upon  the  rights  and  interests  of  its 
stockholders;  upon  the  character  of  its  officers,  and  upon  the 
general  prosperity. 

If,  in  the  further  prosecution  of  my  purpose,  from  which  I 
do  not  mean  any  thing  shall  turn  me  aside,  I  shall  throw  a 
light  even  more  repulsive,  upon  Hhe  government  directors,' 
and  cast  even  a  more  odious  shade  upon  their  doings,  they 
will  find  the  elements  which  I  may  embody,  in  their  own 
acts,  and  the  colouring  matter  I  use,  in  their  own  party  reck- 
lessness. 

Some  may  suppose  it  impossible  for  the  "  spies"  to  have 
meant  to  convey  to  their  employer,  that  the  iS29,979  92  had 
been  employed  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the  elections. 


trtrbtf 


-,   ^ 


CSB  variants; 


UCSB  Lib.   181  rev.) 


Tn  his  own  pocket,  and  which  he  kliyw  IIUU  vmw  jjaid  lor  ar- 
ticles of  his  trade,  which  the  Bank  bought  of  him. 

9 


¥ 


of 

ge 
ma 

thi 

has 

up( 

sto 

gei 

] 

do 

ligl 

and 

wil 

acts 

less 


me! 


!■;»  I  ^    o^  nau 


been  employed  for  the  purpose  of  controlling  the  elections. 


65 

For  the.  satisfaction  of  such,  I  will  prove,  by  their  own  words, 
that  they  did  so  intend;  and  that  they  intended  nothing  else. 
Hear  them: 

."  We  deemed  it  expedient,  at  presenf,  to  confine  our  investi- 
gation to  that  portion  which  embraced  expenditures  QCj"  CALCULATED 
TO  OPERATE  ON  THE  ELECTIONS." 

Now,  what  does  the  reader  think?  Alnibstthe  first  ques- 
tion that  an  intelligent  reader  will  ask,  will  be — were  all  these 
items  for  stationary,  printing  blank  forms;  for  books,  for  en- 
graving bank  notes,  &c.  &c.  'calculated  to  operate  on  the  elec- 
tions?' and  especially,  were  the  three  hundred  and  odd  dollars 
that  were  paid  by  the  Bank  to  Sullivan,  for  articles  in  the  line 
of  his  business,  and  which  formed  a  part  of  this  very  29,000 
and  odd  dollars,  'calculated  to  operate  on  elections?' 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  "spies"  tell  tjieir  employer  that 
"  All  expenditures  of  Q^  THIS  kind,  (made  to  operate  upon 
the  elections,)  introduced  into  the  expense  account,  and  dis- 
covered by  us,  we  found  to  be,  so  far  as  regards  the  institu- 
tion in  this  city,  embraced  under  the  head  of  Stationary  and 
Printing." 

Now  let  us  analyze  this  a  little.  Not  only  were  expendi- 
tures made,  according  to  the  "spies,"  'to  operate  on  the  elec- 
tions,' but  they  were  entered  under  the  head  of  '  Stationary 
and  Printing' — and  though  thus  ingeniously  contrived,  the 
true  nature  and  object  of  these  expenditures,  were  DC7^  'dis- 
covered by  us,'  But  this  was  not  all.  The  drift  of  the  infor- 
mation was  intended  to  convey  to -their  employer's  mind  the 
belief  that  all  the  branches  were  engaged  in  the  same  busi- 
ness of  making  'expenditures  to  operate  on  the  election,'  for 
what  the  "spies"  reported,  regarded  only,  'the  institutiow 

IN  THIS  CITY.' 

I  trust  there  will  be  no  more  doubt  on  any  body's  mind  as 
to  what  were  the  object  and  aim  of  the  "spies."  Thus  it  was, 
that  "the  enormous  sum"  of  29,000  dollars  was  reported  as 
having  been  expended  by  the  Bank,  to  "operate  on  the  elec- 
tions," even  to  the  300  and  odd  dollars  that  Sullivan  had  put 
in  his  own  pocket,  and  which  he  knew  had  been  paid  for  ar- 
ticles of  his  trade,  which  the  Bank  bought  of  hiip. 

"'    9  " 


66 

A  most  remarkable  feature  in  this  case  is,  that  the  miscel- 
laneous expenses  in  the  item  of  29,979  92  could  not,  as  the 
Board  of  Directors  very  appropriately  remarks,  <have  been 
spent  on  elections,  from  the  fact  that  in  the  first  half  year  of 
1831,  no  elections  of  any  kind,  in  which  the  Bank  could,  by 
any  possibility,  have  any  interest,  were  impending  for  eigh- 
teen months  to  come,  or  even  in  remote  agitation.'  But  no 
matter,  "  Rumour"  had  told  President  Jackson  otherwise,  and 
his  ^'spies'*  were  compelled,  by  virttie  of  their  employment, 
and  its  hoped  for  "  rewards,"  to  sustain  it. 

I  said  I  had  some  more  facts  and  figures  for  this  number. 
V  If  they  were  not  facts  and  figures,  I  would  myself  discard  them. 
But  they  are.      Either  these  are  lalse,  or  the  "spies"  are.  The 
reader  shall  decide. 

Xhe' "spies"  say—"  It  appears  by  the  expense  account  of 
the  Bank  for  the   years    1831   and   1832,  that  upwards  of 
^80,000  were  expended" For  what? — "  STA- 
TIONARY AND  PRINTING"— and  charged,  under  that 
head — that  is,  the  head  so  denominated,  but  which,  as  "dis- 
covered by  us,"  was  to.  "operate  on  the  elections."     The 
**spies"  further  "discover"  that  a  "large  proportion"  of  this 
80,000  dollars  was  paid  to  the  proprietors  of  newspapers,  and 
periodical  journals;  and  for  the  printing,  distribution,  and 
postage  of  immense  nupibers  of  pamphlets  and  newspapers." 
Let  the  reader  connect  this  "discovery"  of  the  "spies" 
with  their  own  declaration  that  they  "deemed  it  expedient  to 
confine  their  interrogatories  to  that  portion  which  embraced 
expenditures  calculated  to  operate  on  elections,"  and  then  de- 
cide whether  the  charge  was  not  distinctly  made  that  the 
Bank  had  employed  these  80,000  dollars,  or  a  "large 'portion 
of  it,"  in  electioneering  against  "the  party."     If  this  conclu- 
sion is  denied,  then  does  he  who  denies^it  implicate  the  un- 
derstanding of  President  Jackson  himself—for  he  so  interpreted 
it,  and  he  so  said  in  his  famous  manifesto.     The  words  of  this 
functionary  are:  "  The   expenditures  purporting  to   have 
been  made  under  authority  of  these  resolutions,   (resolutions 
of  the  Board  authorising  the  President  of  the  Bank  to  expend 
money  to  detect  and  expose  calumnies,)  during  the  years 


67 

1831  and  1832,  were  about  80,000  dollars."  Now  suppose 
this  had  been  true,  which,  by  the  way,  it  happens  not  to  be> 
it  would  prove  no  more  than  that  calumnies  had  multiplied  ; 
and  that  it  required  an  "enormous"  expenditure  on  the  part 
of  the  bank  to  detect  and  expose  them.  But  it  was  false — 
(I  do  not  mean  false,  as  regards  the  multiplication  of  calum- 
nies, but  as  to  the  objects  on  which  the  sum  was  expended) 
for  of  this  very  sum  there  were  paid  for 

Making  and  printing  bank  notes,  $24,591  96 

Printing  blank  forms,  and  other  necessary 

papers,  1,S48  OS 

Books  and  stationary,  6,053  8§ 

Various  miscellaneous  expenses,  653  25 


Total,  $33,147  17 

This  is  demonstration.  Euclid  himself  could  not  moi'e 
clearly  detect  a  falsehood  in  flgures,*than  this  simple  statement 
detects  and  exposes  the  rank  falsehood  of  the  "spies." 

A  few  words  on  the  cause  of  the  expenditure  of  a  cent  by 
the  Bank  for  any  thing  else  except  for  its  necessary  materials. 
It  is  to  be  found  exclusively  in  the  calumnies  which  com- 
menced in  1829,  and  which  followed  its  refusal  to  throw  it- 
self into  the  arms  of  "the  party,"  to  be  used  by  it  as  a  tool. 
At  every  point  was  its  credit,  its  honour,  and  the  fair  fame  of 
its  officers  assailed.  Driven  by  the  riecessity  of  the  case,  the 
Bank  employed  in  its  own  defence,  in  the  years  1829,  1830, 
1831, 1832,  and  1833^  g58,265  04,  or  an  average  of  between 
eleven  and  twelve  thousand  dollars  ar  year,  not  in  interfering 
in  elections,  but  in  detecting  and  exposing  calumnies.  Now 
all  this  the  "spies"  knew.  The  use  they  made  of  it,  I  have 
exposed.  On  the  question  which  ignorance  and  prejudice 
have  started  as  to  the  right  of  the  Bank  thus  to  defend  itself, 
whether  against  calumniators  oi*  counterfeiters,  I  will  dis- 
course in  my  next,  promising,  meanwhile,  to  demonstrate, 
that,  as  between  calumniators  and  counterfeiters,  the  for- 
mer required  to  be  watched  with  ten-fold  vigilance;  and 
that  of  the  two,  in  moral  guilt,  and  infamy,  and  ability,  to  in- 
jure the  Bank,  the  counterfeiter  was  the  less  exceptionable 
character.  ARISTIDES. 


6S 

No.  IC* 

The  reader  will  "be  at  no  loss  to  discover  what  has  been 
my  object  in. tracing  as  I  have  done,  the  calumnies  with  which 
partisans  have  assailed   the  Bank;  and  all  the  world  knows 
how  effeclual  they  have  proved  in  undermining  that  incom- 
parable institution.     This    is  a   fearful  commentary  on  the 
moral  condition  of  the  public  mind!     It  would  seem  that 
when  men,  otherwise  estimable,  good  citizens,  kind    hus- 
bands, affectionate  brothers,  and  faithful  friends,  become  in- 
vested with  a  little  brief  Governmental  authority,  there  passes 
over  them  a  blinding  influeuce,  which  closes  their  eyes  to 
every  thing,  except  that  which  may  promote  their  own  and 
their  employer's  ends.     Novy,  why,  I  ask,  should  this  be  so? 
Or,  why,  if  it  be  so — (and  whether  it  is  so  or-not,  I  have  en- 
deavoured to  let  facts  decide)  should  there  be  the  slightest  ob- 
jection in  those  who  permit  themselves  to  bethus  blinded,  or 
in  the  mind  of  any  just  and  honest  man,  to  such  a  discussion 
of  the  subject  as  shall  expoge  it  in  its  deformity,  and  in  the 
recklessness  with  which  the  spirit  that  sustains  it  manifests 
itself. 

It  was  my  intention  in  this  number  to  institute  a  compari- 
son between  the  evil  effects  of  calumny,  and  of  counterfeiting, 
and  to  demonstrate  that  in  the  relation  which  these  two  bear 
to  the  Bank,  that  calumr^  is  a  tenfold  more  dangerous  enemy; 
and  that  if  it  is  right  in  the  Bank-r(and  who  will  deny  this?) 
to  expend  its  money  in  detecting  counterfeiters,  and  protect- 
ing itself  agsinst  their  dq^ngs,  the  obligation  is  no  less  binding 
upon  it,  to  expend  money,  also,  in  detecting  and  exposing 
calumnies.  But  I  waive  this  point  for  the  present,  to  expose 
the  origin  and  analyze  the  cause  of  these  calumnies,  which 
have  been  so  multiplied  of  late,  and  employed  with  such  ef- 
fect against  the  Bank  and  its  interests. 

I  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  their  origin.  They  were  not 
commenced,  however,  with  any  view  to  use  this  monstrous 
engine  against  the  Bank — Q^  but  to  break  down  the  party 

•  Erroneously  numbered.  It  should  have  been  15.  Not  to  break  the 
series,  or  to  disturb  the  references,  16  is  preserved. 


69 

then  in  power  and  build  up  another.  The  success  of  the 
experiment  was  so  complete,  that  when  the  Bank  was  to  be 
assailed,  calumny  was  resorted  to,  and  employed,  as  the  great 
instrument  to  produce  its  downfal. 

I  trace  the  first  bold  and  reckless  calumny,  the  calumny 
which  may  be  denominated  the  fruitful  mother  of  the  thou- 
sands that  have  since  been  sent  around  the  country,  to  Col. 
Thos.  H.  Benton,  of  the  U.  S.  Senate.  It  is  to  be  found  in 
his  famous  letter,  usually  denominated  the  East  Room  Letter. 
"  The  party,"  the  present  dominant  party,  I  mean,  was  then 
just  beginning  its  struggle  for  the  ascendancy.  It  was  daily 
and  hourly  employed  in  finding  out  causes  of  complaint 
against  the  administration.  Truth  could  not  be  employed 
against  it — because  ther^  was  no  cause  of  ofience  in  its  acts — 
and  nothing  in  any  of  its  measures,  when  ftirly  told,  to  which 
the  people  could  take  the  slightest  exception.  It  therefore 
became  necessary  to  try  a  new  experiment,  and  one  that  had 
never  before,  in  the  history  of  this  government  at  least,  been 
attempted.  It  was,  in  plain  language,  to  INVENT  FALSE- 
HOODS, and  to  employ  presses,  subsidized  for  the  purpose, 
to  send  them  around  among  the  people  for  truths!  It  required 
a  daring  spirit,  a  reckless  partisan,  to  commence  a  war,  which, 
if  the  first  demonstration  should  prove  successful,  was  after- 
wards to  be  carried  on  by  the  same  instrument.  We  all  know 
how  extremely  sensitive  the  people  were  at  that  period  on 
the  subject  of  the  right  and  economical  use  which  they  ex- 
pected the  Executive  to  make  of  their  money;  and  how  (as 
it  was  right  they  should)  they  resented  the  slightest  departure 
in  the  expenditures  from  the  moSt  rigid  economy.  Well,  the 
purpose  was  to  lash  into  fury  this  feeling;  and  by  bringing 
all  its  force  to  bear  on  President  Adams,  to  turn  him  out,  and 
turn  their  favourite  leader  in.  Col.  Benton,  throwing  aside 
all  those  guards  which  honourable  partisans  take  care  to  set 
round  their  acts,  came  boldly  out,  and  in  the  very  face  oT  truth, 
and  in  utter  contempt  of  what  Twenty  Thousand  persons  at 
that  moment  personally  knew,  (tor  there  was  not  a  man  in 
the  District  of  Columbia,  and  no  visiter  to  the  President's 
mansion,  that  did  not  know  better,)  penned  and  published  a 


70 

letter  setting  forth,  in  substance,  that  President  Adams  had, 
at  immense  cost,  and  in  a  most  gorgeous  style  furnished  that 
famous  East  room!  The  reader  sees  the  object  It  was  to 
make  the  people  believe  that  that  Administration  made  a 
wanton  use  of  their  monej',  and  that  republican  simplicity 
was  discarded — in  a  word,  as  the  slang  of  the  day  was,  Mr. 
Adams  was  King  John;  and  he  must  therefore  live  in  regal 
splendour! ! 

How  strange  to  tell — that  calumny  was  successful !  Whilst 
not  a  dollar  had  been  spent  on  that  room,  and  a  studied  eco- 
nomy characterized  all  the  expenditures  of  Mr.  Adams,  as  the 
world  knows.  This  fabrication  usurped  the  place,  and  exer- 
cised the  power  of  truth  itself.  The  people  every  where 
reeled  before  it,  and  from  it  arose  a  flame  of  unextinguishable 
fierceness,  which  •ctually  coasumed  to  ashes  that  Adminis- 
tration. 

Here  then  the  party  knew  what  power,  an  artfully  invented 
calumny  could,  when  spiritedly,  and  perseveringly  employed, 
possess.  It  became,  from  that  hour,  the  chosen  instrument 
of  the  party,  as  much  so  as  was  the  battering  ram  with  the 
people  of  old,  when  the  wall  of  a  city  was  to  be  battered 
down.  And  like  that  ancient  engine,  it  has  proved  itself  to 
be  formidable  and  irresistible. 

The  Bank  had  been  variously  beset.  It  passed  through 
siege  after  siege.  It  same  out  in  triumph  of  the  Woodbury 
plot — it  drove  back  the  assailants,  even  including  the  Examin- 
ing Committee,  of  which  Judge  Clayton  was  chairman — It 
came  out  unscathed  of  the  deep  plot  of  a  witness  sent,  as  I 
have  shown,  by  this  same  Col.  Benton,  to  bear  testimony 
against  the  President  of  the  Bank,  and  whose  testimony  must 
have,  like  the  lightning,  killed  the  fair  fame  of  President 
Biddle,  and  mutilated,  if  not  destroyed  the  Bank,  had  not  a 
conductor  most  happily  conveyed  the  fluid  from  the  line  of 
its  direfition.  I  have  illustrated  this  in  a  previous  number. 
The  Bank  came  out  of  all  this,  and  more  than  I  have  enume- 
rated, in  triumph, — and  had,  by  a  surprising  unanimity,  con- 
sidering the  party  character  of  the  times,  its  charter  renewed. 

There  remained  no  hope  now  of  the  downfal  of  the  Bank, 


71 

but  in  the  veto  of  President  Jackson.  That  was  of  easy  ac- 
complishment. He  had  by  this  time  been  taught  to  believe 
that  the  Bank  was  his  enemy.  That  was  enough.  But  still 
there  would  be  wanting  reasons  to  bear  him  out  in  his  pur- 
pose. 

The  older  calumnies,  though  exploded  by  the  action  of 
Congress  in  the  renewal  of  the  Charter,  were  kept,  never- 
theless, in  perpetual  circulation  by  the  presses  that  had  been 
subsidized  for  tlie  purpose,  by  the  office-holders,  who  knew 
that  their  tenure  of  office  was  limited  to  their  exertions;  and 
by  those  who  expected  to  be  rewarded  for  assisting  in  their 
circulation. 

Among  the  calumnies  originating  in  this  object  was  that, 
which  announced  that  the  Bank  was  not  a  safe  depository  of 
the  public  money.  This  annunciation  was  ushered  amidst 
the  shouts  of*  the  party.'  It  was  attempted,  by  means  of  this 
calumny,  to  batter  down  the  Bank,  officers  and  all.  Nothing, 
of  course,  was  supposed  to  be  strong  enough  to  withstand  the 
effects  of  the  doubts  intended  to  be  created  by  this  declaration, 
in  the  minds  of  the  people.  It  was  as  much  as  to  tell  them 
*your  money  is  in  danger!'  Upon  this  point  the  people  had 
proved"  themselves  to  be  sensitive.  It  was-intended  to  confirm 
the  truth  of  the  charge;  and  Mr.  Toland,  a  personal  and  poli- 
tical friend  of  the  President,  was  charged  to  examine  and  re- 
port upon  it.  The  conspirators  mistook  their  man.  He  was 
honest.  No  political  cawl  covered  the  sight  of  his  eyes;  no 
political  bias  warped  his  judgment.  He  reported  the  truth; 
the  Bank  was  in  his  view,  a  perfectly  safe  depository  of  the 
public  money.  This  was,  for  the  moment,  a  stumper.  But 
though  sustained  by  a  report  of  the  Committee  of  the  House 
of  Representatives,  it  was  still  kept  going  the  rounds  among 
the  people,  that  the  Bank  was  not  a  safe  depository  of  the 
public  money,. and  that  Gen.  JACKSON  HAD  SAID  SO. 

At  the  very  time  when  this  calumny  was  uttered,  the  Bank, 
as  the  documents  pr,ove,  was  in  the  full  power  of  its  strength. 
I  would  insert  the  proofs  in  figures,  but  am  relieved  from  this 
necessity,  by  the  promulgation  of  an  opposite  calumny; 
namely,  that  the  Bank  was '  TOO  STRONG,'  and  therefore, 


72 

'DANGEROUS  TO  THE  LIBERTIES  OF  THE  PEO- 
PLE!!' Instead  of  awakening  public  suspicion  as  to  the 
game  that  'the  party'  was  playing  with  the  public  confidence, 
even  this  calumny  was  made  to  operate  just  as  if  not  a  word 
had  been  said  about  the  feebleness  of  the  Bank,  and  the  inse- 
curity of  the  public  funds.     - 

As  in  the  case  of  Col.  Benton's  attack  on  Mr.  Adams'  pro- 
digal Waste  of  the  public  money,  illustrated  by  him  in  a  most 
extravagant  exhibition  of  the  manner  in  which  the  East  room 
was  said  by  him  to  be  furnished,  whuen  not  a  dollar  had  been 
laid  out  upon  it,  so  with  these  calumnies  against  the  Bank. 
There  was  not  a  particle  of  truth  to  support  either  of  them; 
'  nor,  in  fact,  was  it  needed.  The  presses,  the  office-holders — 
the  expectants,  were  now  all  firmly  leagued,  to  say  every 
thing  was  true,  that  the  President  might  choose  to  utter,  or 
his  supporters  to  fabricate.  In  vain  did  truth  lift  up  her 
voice  in  this*  war  of  falsehood — in  vain  did  justice  plead — 
and  in  vain  did  the  consciences  of  the  abettors  in  this  nefarious 
work,  smite  them.  The  charges  were  still  sent  round. — 
Every  appeal  jthat  human  ingenuity  could  invent,  was  made 
to  inflame  the  public  mind  against  the  Bank. — It  was  a  mono- 
poly^— itjiad  foreigners  among  its  stockholders — it  was  op- 
posed to  Andrew  Jackson,  who  for  that  reason  and  for  no 
other,  denounced^it  as  "a  monster.'' — And  was  it  a  monster? 
"The  party"  told  the  people  so  under  every  form  of  speech- 
making,  and  by  its  press.  Some  poor  ignorant  souls,  fancied 
it  was  a  living  thing,  with  horns  and  a  forked  tail,  and  club 
feet,  and  having  fire  issuing  from  its  mouth.  "  Down  with 
the  monster,"  -was  kept  going  the  rounds  of  the  country. 
Engravings  w^re  got  up,  representing  President  Jackson  and 
Mr.  Biddle,  as  engagetl  ia  personal  combat.  All  this,  like 
the  fire  fanned,  or  blown  upon  by  strong  winds,  ignited  every 
combustible  material,  uniil  the  purpose  was  formed,  and  the 
plan  devised,  to  throw  President  Jackson  in  the  foreground 
of  this  commotion,  where,  having  taken  his  stand,  he  was  to 
decide  on  his  own  responsibility — against  the  decision  of 
Congress — against  the  report  of  Mr.  Toland,  and  against  the 
unqualified  report  of  the  committee  of  the  House  of  Repre- 


73 

sentatives,  that  for  the  reasons  stated,  (though  proved  to  be 
false,)  he  would  remove  the  public  deposites.  He  did  so. 
He  did  this  in  violation  of  law;  and  by  the  usurpation  of  a 
power  more  threatening  to  Republican  Liberty,  than  any  thing 
that  has  ever  occurred  previous,or  subsequent  to  the  formation, 
and  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 

But  there  was  one  incentive  that  has  not  yet  been  named. 
It  was  the  prospects  which  these  movements  opened,  of  pecu- 
niary gain  among  those  who  were  in  the  secret  of  .what  the 
President  had  resolved  to  do.  Is  there  a  reader  so  uninform- 
ed as  not  to  know  how  this  Bank  Stock  was  speculated  in, 
and  D3=  BY  \V^HOM  ? 

I  will  not  pursue  this  denioralizing  view  further,  nor  will 
I  name  the  speculators,  at  least  at  present,  but  will  conclude 
this  number  by  again  referring  to  the  power  of  calumny  and 
falsehood;  and  how,  when  they  are  employed  as  they  have 
been,  by  the  profligate,  in  regard  to  the  Bank,  the  public  may 
be  duped,  and  deeply,  if  not  irretrievably  injured!  The 
very  same  combination,  and  the  same  weapons  if  employed 
against  our  Liberties,  would  make  slaves  of  us  all. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  17. 

A  few,  and  very  few  words  on  Counterfeiters  and  Ca- 
lumniators. I  hold  them  to  be  alike  criminal.  I  verily  be- 
lieve, nevertheless,  that  men  will,  as  politicians,  calumniate 
as  1  have  demonstrated  they  have  done,  who  would  die  a 
thousand  deaths,  rather  than  counterfeit.  My  object  is  to 
expose  the  gross  delusion  under  which  men  labour,  who,  acting 
on  the  maxim,  that  "all^sfair  in  politics,''^  will  utter  a  ca- 
lumny, and  contemplate  it  in  the  light  of  an  innocent  device, 
either  to  obtain  or  retain  power. 

A  counterfeiter,  suppose  he  gets  into  circulation  all  the 
notes  he  may  prepare,  injures  the  Bank,  whose  notes  he  re- 
presents, to  a  very  trifling  extent,  for  the  operation  is,  when 
the  spurious  issue  is  detected,  to  make  people  more  cautious 

10 


74 

in  ascertaining  the  genuineness  of  the  notes  oflfered.  The  loss 
fails  upon  individuals,  who  may  have  been  cheated,  and  not 
upon  the  Bank,  except  partially.  It  has  rarely  occurred,  that 
the  annunciation  that  counterfeit  notes  of  any  Bank  were  in 
circulation,  produced  any  depression  in  the  value  of  the  slock 
of  the  Bank.  Not  so  with  calumnies.  They  operate  upon 
the  stock,  as  immediately,  and  as  sensibly,  as  does  the  atmo- 
sphere upon  mercury.  Now  let  us  see  what  effect  the 
calumnies  that  I  have  exposed,  and  the  action  of  President 
Jackson,  who  was  influenced  by  them,  had  on  the  stock  of 
the  Bank.  Mr.  Calhoun  says  in  his  masterly  speech  on  the 
removal  of  the  deposites,  that  "the  value  of  ^ares  was  re- 
duced from  130  to  108," — a  Senator  near  him  said,  "much 
more."  Now  let  me  ask  if  all  the  counterfeiting  that  has 
been  carried  on,  of  the  notes  of  this  Bank,  from  its  origin  to 
this  day,  ever  injured  so  deeply,  the  interests  of  the  stock- 
holders? Has  any  body  ever  questioned  the  right,  or  duty,  of 
the  Bank  to  expend  money  in  detecting  counterfeiters?  No- 
body.— Can  any  body  assign  a  single  good  reason  why  the 
Bank  should  not  be  equally  bound  to  expend  money  in  dis- 
abusing the  public  mind  from  calumnies  which  tend  so  imme- 
diately, and  to  such  vast  extent,  to  injure  every  individual 
stockholder.  I  will  suppose  a  case.  Suppose  a  person,  or 
persons,  to  be  appointed  by  President  Jackson,  to  give  him  se- 
cret information  of  the  acts  of  the  Bank,  whether  in  regard  to 
its  expenditure  of  money,  to  detect  counterfeiters,  or  rebut 
calumnies.  And  suppose  he  should  be  written  to  in  reply, 
and  told  that  the  Bank  had  expended  a  large  portion  of  the 
enormous  sum  of  $80,000  in  controlling  electiutis;  and  that 
President  Jackson,  on  the  faith  of  such  a  statement,  should 
projnulgate  his  purpose  to  veto  any  bill  that  might  be  passed 
for  a  recharter  of  a  Bank  that  would  thus  act?  Suppose  the 
Directors  of  the  Bank  to  remain  perfectly  indifferent  as  to  the 
charge,  and  the  stock  should  fall  from  "130,  to  108," — Sup- 
pose that  a  stockholder,  feeling  himself  aggrieved,  should  ap- 
pear at  the  Bank,  and  expostulate  with  the  President  and  Di- 
rectors, against  a  conduct  so  extraordinary,  and  that  he  should 
be  shown  the  proofs  that  the  Bank  had  done  no  such  thing. 


Suppose  it  had  never  occurred  to  the  Board  to  disabuse  the 
public  mind,  except  by  relying  on  its  denial  in  Congress,  and 
on  the  circulation  of  public  documents,  and  this  stockholder 
had  said — "Why,  gentlemen,  if  the  people  in  my  neighbour- 
hood could  be  convinced,  as  I  am,  that  this  is  a  calumny,  their 
confidence  would  be  restored  in  the  Bank;  and  its  stock,  so 
far  as  they  are  concerned,  would  be  restored  to  the  point 
whence  this  calumny   dislodged  it,  and  from  which  it  has 
fallen."    Suppose  the  President  of  the  Bank  to  reply,  "Why, 
my  dear  sir,  this  has  been  done.     Mr.  Clay,   Mr.  Calhoun, 
Mr.  Binney,  Mr.  Webster,  and  others,  have  all  declared  the 
charge  to  be  false,  and  proven  it  to  be  false,  and  fhe  Board 
have  sent  to  Washington  copies  of  the  very  documents  I  have 
shown  you."     Well,!  will  suppose  the  stockholder  to  reply, 
"That  may  be,  but  my  neighbours  know  nothing  of  all  this — 
they  do  not  get  the  public  documents,  and  very  fe^y  of  any, 
except  our  little  country  papers.     Suppose  the  Board  should 
pass  a  resolution  giving  you  authority  to  publish  and  circulate 
extra  copies  of  these  praq/s,  used  by  Mr.  Calhoun  and  others, 
going  to  vindicate  the  Bank,  and  that  you  send  a  few  hun- 
dred or  a  thousand  to  me,   for  distribution?"     And  suppose 
some  one  to  move  such  a  resolution  at  the  Board,  and  that  it 
was  NOT  carried — and  for  the  want  of  these  very  facts,  the 
exhibition  of  which  had  satisfied  the  stockholder  of  the  falsity 
of  the  charge  made  against  the  Bank,  stock  should,  under  the 
influence  of  public  opinion,  (for  that  is  the  mimosa  pudica, 
or  the  Mercury,  which  indicates  the  touch  of  depressing  or 
elevating  influences,)  continue  thus  depressed;  and  that  stock- 
holder being  in  want  of  the  amount  of  his  stock,  for  which 
his  stock  might  be  pledged,  and  he  compelled,  under  such 
circumstances,  to  sell  it — I  ask,  would  he  not  have  reason  to 
complain  of  rank  injustice?     Nay,  to  denounce  the  President 
and  Directors  as  unworthy  of  their  trust,  and  unfitted  to 
manage  the  great  concerns  of  the  Bank? 

Well,  the  Board  of  Directors  being  intelligent  men,  com- 
petent and  just  men,  and  having  an  eye  to  the  interests  of  the 
Bank,  instead  of  refusing  to  comply  with  the  suggestion  of 
the  stockholder,  as  I  have  supposed,  did  no  more  by  comply- 


76 

ing,  in  the  money  expended  for  extra  Speeches,  and  extra 
Documents,  exculpatory  of  the  Bank,  and  vindicating  it 
against  the  effects  of  calumny,  than  was  its  solemn  and  sa- 
cred duty — a  duty  it  owed  alike  to  the  government  and  all 
its  other  stockholders.  It  is  to  this  very  course,  I  have  no 
doubt,  that  public  opinion  was  enabled  to  sustain  the  Bank, 
and  that  the  stock  of  the  Bank  maintained,  against  all  the 
attacks  upon  it,  and  in  spite  of  the  plans  of  the  Speculators, 
who  are  known  to  have  been  in  the  secret  at  Washington,  its 
price  as  it  did.  But  for  this,  it  would  have  been  the  subject 
of  perpetual  fluctuation;. and  the  "buyers  and  sellers,"  men 
not  a  whit  better  than  they  whose  tables  once  disgraced  the 
temple  at  Jerusalem,  and  which  the  purest  and  holiest  of 
beings,  overturned,  would  have  contiuHed  to  "buy  and  sell" 
and  "make  gain;"  because  they  were  in  the  secret^  and  knew 
when  the  spring  was  to  be  touched,  and  when  the  pressure 
upon  it  was  to  be  withdrawn. 

I  have  now  briefly  endeavoured  to  illustrate  the  compara- 
tive injury  which  may  be  done  to  a  Bank,  by  Counterfeiters 
and  Calumniators;  and  the  duty  of  the  Bank,  to  guard  its  in- 
terests against  both — but  as  the  greater  enemy  of  the  two, 
against  the  Calumniator. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  18. 

•The  object  for  which  the  Bank  made  these  expenditures, 
which  the  Government  Directors  asserted  to  have  been  made 
to  control  the  elections,^  are  now  obvious.  How  easy,  how 
natural  was  it  for  these  men  to  have  perceived  in  these  ex- 
penditures the  same  object,  viz : — to  defend  the  Bank  against 
calumny,  and  protect  it  against  counterfeiters.  How  unna- 
tural to  see  them  in  any  other  light !  And  how  equally  na- 
tural, and  at  the  same  time  easy  of  comprehension  was  it, 
that  when  larger  expenditures  were  seen  to  have  been  made 
during  election  periods,  that  they  were  called  for  by  the  mul- 
tiplicity of  calumnies  that  were  sent  round,  at  these  periods. 


77 

among  the  people.  But  no— having  been,  in  their  own  lan- 
guage, ^devised  as  instruments,^  and  commissioned  to  per- 
form specific  duties,  and  under  a  stipulated  form,  that  is, 
^without  the  knowledge  of  the  other  Directors,'  there  was  no 
medium  through  which  the  acts  of  the  Bank  could  be  seen, 
by  them,  but  that  which  went  to  'impair  its  credit,'  and  to 
'excite  odium  against  the  other  Directors.'  One  leading  de- 
sign would  seem  never  to  have  been  lost  sight  of  by  these 
Government  Directors,  and  that  was,  by  the  scintillation  of 
spark  after  spark,  to  fire  the  magazine  of  President  Jackson's 
vengeance.  They  succeeded,  as  has  been  before  stated,  for 
he  says  himself  they  'decided  him.' 

I  will  pursue,  in  this  No.,  some  of  the  means  resorted  to, 
to  effect  this  object.  The  Government  Directors  say,  'Pub- 
lications have  been  prepared,  and  extensively  circulated,  con- 
taining the  grossest  invectives  against  [O^  the  Officers  of  the 
Government ;  and  the  money  which  belongs  to  the  stockholdr 
ers,  and  to  the  public,  has  been  freely  applied  in  efforts  to 
degrade,  in  public  estimation,  those  who  were  supposed  to  be 
instrumental  in  resisting  the  wishes  of  this  grasping  and  dan- 
gerous institution.' 

What  is  the  answer  of  Messrs.  Willing,  Eyre,  Bevan, 
White,  Sergeant,  Fisher,  Lippincott,  Chauncey,  Newkirk, 
Lewis,  Holmes,  Biddle?  Hear  it:— "IT  IS  NOT  TRUE, 
that  any  *  publications  have  been  prepared  and  extensively 
circulated,  containing  the  grossest  invectives  against  the  offi- 
cers of  the  government.'  "  Who  are  they  that  say  it  is  true  ? 
H.  D.  Gilpin,  J.  T.  Sullivan,  and  Peter  Wager.  The  public 
will,  of  course,  decide  for  itself  which  party  to  believe. 

Again — the  same  three  assert,  that  '  The  fact  has  been 
RECENTLY  discloscd,  that  an  unlimited  discretion  has  been,  and 
is  now  vested  in  the  President  of  the  Bank,  to  expend  its  funds 
in  payment  for  preparing  and  circulating  articles,  and  pur- 
chasing pamphlets  and  newspapers,  calculated,  by  their  con- 
tents, to  OPERATE  on  Elections,  and  secure  a  renewal  of  its 
charter.' 

What  is  the  answer  to  this  assertion?— "NOR  IS  IT  TRUE, 
that  ANY  power  is  vested  in  the  President  'for  preparing  and 


78 

circulating  articles,  and  purchasing  pamphlets  and  newspa- 
pers, calculated,  by  their  contents,  to  operate  on  elections.' 
NO  SUCH  POWER  IS  GIVEN,  AND  NO  SUCH  POWER 
IS  EXERCISED." 

Here,  again,  the  public  will  decide  which  party  tells  the 
truth,  and  which  not.     That  both  do,  none  will  believe. 

The  twelve  gentlemen  whose  names  are  given  above,  unite 
in  saying  what  the  power  given  actually  is.  <  The  power,' 
they  say,  actually  given,  which  has  been  exercised,  and  will 
continue  to  be  exercised,  is,  for  (jQ^'^e  defence  of  the  Bank 
against-  the  CALUMNIES  with  which,  for  four  years,  the 
institution  has  been  pursued.' 

Once  more.  The  three  Government  Directors  say:  *  The 
fact  that  the  Bank  controls,  and  in  some  cases  substantially 
otims,  and  by  its  money  supports  some  of  the  leading  presses 
of  the  country,  is  now  more  clearly  understood.' 

What  is  the  answer  to  this  by  those  twelve  gentlemen  ? — 
irj=«THIS  WHOLE  ALLEGATION  IS  DENIED.'  They 
proceed  in  detail  thus — and  put  the  extinguisher  of  Truth, 
upon  each  point  of  Calumny,  in  order.  They  say,  'The  Bank 
does  not  now  control,  and  never  did  control  any  press  what- 
ever— the  Bank  does  not  own,  and  never  did  own  any  press 
— ^the  Bank  does  not  support,  not  did  it  ever  support,  by  its 
money,  any  press.'  This,  it  must  be  confessed,  is  a  stumper ! 
They  proceed — 'Created  for  the  purpose  of  giving  aid  to  every 
branch  of  industry,  it  has  not  presumed  to  proscribe  the  con- 
ductors of  the  press  from  their  share  of  the  accommodation 
due  to  their  capital  and  industry.  Of  the  extent  and  security 
of  these  loans,  the  Directors  claim  the  exclusive  privilege  of 
judging.' 

Now  this  is  all  very  plain,  very  honest,  and  very  just.  Who 
that  reads  what  these  twelve  honourable  Directors  say,  doubts 
a  particle  of  it  ? 

But  no  matter.  The  source  whence  these  charges  sprung, 
was  prepared  with  a  channel,  and  a  reservoir,  whence  again 
they  were  to  be  issued,  by  means  of  conduits  already  made 
for  the  purpose,  all  over  the  land.  The  reservoir  was  "  the 
Government:*  Mr.  Taney  made  much  use  of  these  charges. 


79 

I  will  conclude  this  number  by  showing  what  sort  of  reception 
the  charges  met  at  the  hands  of  Mr.  Calhoun,  in  his  famous  . 
speech  in  the  Senate.     He  says: 

"  The  Secretary  (of  the  Treasury)  alleges  that  the  Bank  has  interfered 
with  the  politics  of  the  country.  If  this  be  true,  it  certainly  is  a  most 
heinous  offence.  The  Bank  is  a  great  public  trust,  possessing,  for  the 
purpose  of  discharging  the  trust,  great  power  and  influence,  which  it 
could  not  pervert  from  the  object  intended,  to  that  of  influencing  the  po- 
litics of  the  country,  without  being  guilty  of  a  great  political  crime.  In 
making  these  remarks,  I  do  not  intend  to  give  any  countenance  to  the  truth 
of  the  charge  alleged  by  the  Secretary,  nor  to  deny  to  the  officers  of  the 
Bank  the  right  which  belongs  to  them,  in  common  with  every  citizen, 
freely  to  form  political  principles,  and  sfct  on  them  in  their  private  capacity, 
without  permitting  them  to  influence  their  official  conduct.  But  it  is 
strange  it  did  not  occur  to  the  Secretary,  while  he  was  accusing  and  punish- 
ing the  Bank  on  the  charge  of  interfering  in  the  pcjitics  of  the  country, 
that  the  Government  also  was  a  great  trust,  vested  with  powers  still  more 
extensive,  and  influence  immeasurably  greater  than  that  of  the  bank,  given, 
to  enable  it  to  discharge  the  object  for  which  it  was  created;  and  that  it 
has  no  more  right  to  pervert-its  power  and  influence  into  the  means  of 
controlling  the  politics  of  the  country  than  the  Bank  itself.  Can  it  be  un- 
known to  him  that  the  Fourth  Auditor  of  the  Treasury  (Amos  Kendall)  an 
officer  in  his  own  department,  the  man  who  has  made  so  prominent  a  figure 
in  this  transaction,  was  daily,  and  hourly  meddling  in  politics,  and  that  he 
is  one  of  the  principal  political  managers  of  the  administration!  Can  he 
be  ignorant  that  the  whole  power  of  thfe  government  has  been  perverted 
into  a  great  political  machine,  with  a  view  of  corrupting  and  controlling 
the  country?  Can  he  be  ignorant  that  the  avowed  and  open  policy  of  the 
government  is,  to  reward  political  friends,  and  punish  political  enemies? 
•  And  that,  acting  on  this  principle,  it  has  driven  from  office  hundreds  of 
honest  and  competent  officers,  for  opinion's  sake,  only,  and  filled  their 
places  with  devoted  partizans?  Can  he  be  ignorant  that  the  real  offence  of 
the  Bank  is  not  that  it  has  intermeddled  in  politics,  but  because  it 
OCJ' WOULD  NOT  INTEUMEDDLE  ON  THE  SIDE  OF  POWER! 

"  The"  Secretary  next  tells  us,  in  the  same  spirit,  that  the  Bank  had  been 
wasteful  of  the  public  funds.  That  it  had  spent  some  thirty,  or  forty,  or 
fifty  thousand  dollars  in  circulating  essays,  and  speeches,  in  defence  of  the 
institution,  of  which  sum,  one-fifth  part  belonged  to  the  government. 
Well,  sir,  if  the  Bank  has  really  wasted  this  amount  of  the  public  money, 
(say  $12,000,)  it  is  a  grave  charge.  It  has  not  a  right  to  waste  a  single 
cent.  But  I  must  say,  in  defence  of  the  Bank,  that,  assailed  as  it  was  by 
the  Executive,  it  would  have  been  unfaithful  to  its  trust — both  to  the  stock- 
holders and  to  the  public,  had  it  not  resorted  to  every  proper  means  in  its 
power  to  defend  its  conduct,  and  among  others,  the  free  circulation  of  able 
and  judicious  publications. 


80 

"  But  admit  that  the  Bank  has  been  guilty  of  wasting  the  public  money 
to  the  full  extent  charged  by  the  Secretary,  I  would  ask  if  he,  the  head  of 
the  financial  Department  of  the  Government,  is  not  under  as  high  and  so- 
lemn obligations  to  take  care  of  the  monied  interest  of  the  public,  as  the 
Bank  itself?  I  would  ask  him  to  answer  me  a  few  simple  questions:  How 
has  he  performed  this  duty  in  relation  to  the  interest  which  the  public 
holds  in  the  Bank?  Has  he  been  less  wasteful  than  he  has  charged  the 
Bank  to  have  been?  Has  he  not  wasted  thousands  where  the  Bank,  even 
according  to  his  own  statement,  has  hundreds.  Has  he  not,  by  withdraw- 
ing the  deposites,  and  placing  them  in  the  State  Banks,  where  the  public 
receives  not  a  cent  of  interest,  greatly  affected  the  dividends  of  the  Bank 
of  the  United  States,  in  which  the  Government,  as  a  stockholder,  is  loser 
to  the  amount  of  one-fifth  of  the  diminution?  A  sum  which  I  will  venture 
to  predict  will  many  fold  exceed  the  entire  amount  which  the  Bank  has 
expended  in  ila  defence,* 

"  But  this  is  a  small,  a  very  small  pfoportion  of  the  public  loss,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  coursg  which  the  Executive'  has  pursued  in  relation  to  the 
Bank,  and  which  has  reduced  the  value  of  the  shares  from  130  to  108, 
(a  Director  near  me  says  much  more,)  and  on  which  the  public  sustains  a 
corresponding  loss  on  its  share  of  the  stock,  amounting  to  seven  millions 
of  dollars,  a  sum  more  than  two  hundredfold  greater  than  the  waste  which 
he  has  charged  upon  the  Bank.  Other  Administrations  may  exceed  this 
in  talents, patriotism  and  honesty,  but  certainly  in  AUDACITY,  in  EFFRON- 
TERY, it  stands  without  a  parallel." 

The  public  now  see  with  whom  the  reasons  of  the  Secre- 
tary, such  as  they  are,  originated. 

I  will  in  my  next  point  out  a  few  more  of  these  sparks 
which  the  Government  Directors  sent  in  the  direction  of  the 

•  Mr.  Adams  goes  into  detail  upon  this  point.  He  says: 
"The  people  of  the  United  States  own  Seventy  Thousand  Shares  of  the 
stock  of  this  Bank.  When  the  President  of  the  United  States  declared 
war  against  this  institution,  every  one  of  these  shares  was  worth  one  hun- 
dred and  thirty  dollars.  What  are  they  worth  now?  At  the  utmost  one 
hundred  and  five  dollars  a  share.  Every  share  of  the  Bank  stock  owned 
by  the  people  of  the  United  States,  has  lost  twenty-five  dollars  of  its  value 
to  them,  by  this  electioneering  of  the  President  of  the  United  States  against 
the  Bank  and /or  himself  Twenty -five  dollars  a  share  upon  seventy  thou- 
sand shares  is  One  Million  Seven  Hundred  and  Fifty  Thousand  Dollars, 
and  this  is  the  sum  which  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  levied 
upon  the  people  by  his  electioneering  against  the  Bank,  and  for  himself. 
•       '•  •  *  •  •  •  • 

Whilst  the  Bank  has  expended  forty-eight  thousand  dollars  of  the  money 
of  the  stockholders,  the  President  of  the  United  States  has  taxed  them  to 
the  amount  of  seven  millions  of  dollars." 


81 

magazine  of  President  Jackson's  vengeance;  and  show  the 
light  in  which  Mr.  Binney  viewed  both  the  design  and  the 
execution. 

ARISTIDES- 


No.   19.  s 

There  is  nothing  with  which, men  profess  to  he  famiHaf, 
that  is  better  understood  by  the  intelligent,  of  all  parties,  and 
even  by  the  well  informed  in  countries  other  than  our  own, 
than  is  the  character  of  Andrew  Jackson.  ■  No  well  informed 
man  questions,  for  a  moment,  that  passion,  and  not  reaso7i, 
governs  him.  The  time  has  been,  I  am  aware,  when  he  was 
supported  by  honourable  men,  who  hoped  otherwise.  But 
whatever  of  hope  may  have  remained  on  this  point,  his  con- 
duct towards  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  must  have  dissi- 
pated it;  or,  if  there  were  any  lurking  remains  of  it,  they 
must  be  pow  disposed  of  for  ever,  by  the  cecent  ravings  and 
acfs<y[tha.t  functionary  towards "  Senatof  Poindexter.  ,  The 
power  and  influence  of  the  Presidential  station,  governed,  as 
all  men  know,  by  passion,  were  employed)  and  successfully, 
to  overthrow  the  great  financial  system  of  our  country;  and 
the  same  power  and  influence,  governed  also  by  passion,  and  a 
thirst  for  vengeance,  have  been  put  in  requisition  to  assassi- 
nate the  character  of  Senator  Poindexter!  That  this  mem- 
ber of  the  Senate  is  not  at  this  moment  prostrated,  with  the 
curses  of  millions  upon  him,  with  a  name  riven,  and  blasted, 
and  damned,  is  no  fault  of  Andrew  Jackson,  or  those  who 
cater  for  his  passions.  But  is  he,  who  handled  and  circulated 
the  poison,  or  they  who  mixed  it, 'the  less,  excusable?  Is  the 
physician,  who,  as  the  metaphysician,  Reed,  illustrates,  less 
the  murderer  of  his  patient,  because  the-pills,  made  of  spiders, 
with  a  view  to  kill  him,  work«d  his  cure?     Certainly  not. 

This  plot  against  Senator  Poindexter  is  but  another  burst- 
ing forth,  in  another  place,  of  the  same  covert  strfam,  \\4iose 
principal  source  is  Col.  Benton's  calumny  respecting  the  East 
room.     It  is  no  less  bold  and  daring,  but  it  is  decidedly  more 

11 


82 

wicked.  It  is,  liowever,  of  the  same  family.  The  whole  of 
it  is  resolvable  into  one  simple  element,  viz:— the  wrath  of 
Andrew  Jackson,  kindled  by  those  around  him,  against  any 
thing  and  any  body,  that  he  is  made  to  believe  is  his  enemy. 
Look  how  its  flames  were  tossed  about,  when  Martin  Van 
Buren  kindled  it  against  Mr.  Calhoun.  See  how  it  consumed 
the  first  Cabinet — even  to  Mr.  Branch,  who,  in  an  unfortu- 
natfe  hour,  had  denominated  Andrew  Jackson  "the  greatest 
and  best."  Mark  how  it  has  ravaged  the  financial  system,  in 
the  overthrow  of  the  Bank,  consuming  in  its  course  both  laws 
and  chartered  rights;— *-with  what  unrelenting  fury  it  con- 
sumed the  unbending  Duane,  tind  how  it  has  blazed  out  for 
the  destruction  of  Senator  Poindexter.  Where,  I  ask,  is  the 
man,  I  care  not  how  close  his  fellowship  with  Andrew  Jack- 
son, and  where  i§  the  institution — (the  Senate  and  Supreme 
Court  YET  excepted) — that  artful,  and  designing,  and  cor- 
rupt men,  could  persuade  him  was  his  enemy,  that  he  did  not 
attempt  utterty  to  destroy?  Let  any  man  name  one  of  either, 
if  he  can.  Here  lies  the  secret  of  that  subserviency  to  the 
man  which  is  so  degrading  to  his  followers.  They  know  his 
will  MUST  be  obeyed,  or  they  must,  as  was  Mr.  Duane,  be  im- 
molated, to  appease  his  vengeance. 

As  to  the  recent  attack  upon  Senator  Poindexter,  it  is  even 
more  characteristic  of  Andrew  Jacksoathan  the  attacks  upon 
his  first  Cabinet,  and  upon  members  of  the  Cabinets  which 
have  succeeded.  I  call  upon  the  citizens  of  Tennessee  to 
say,  whether  "the  Affidavit  System"  was  not  his  favorite  one 
there?  Let  Wm.  B.  Lewis  answer.  How  deeply  to  be  de- 
plored is  it,  that  Andrew  Jackson  cannot  lose  himself  in  the 
President  of  the  United  States;  but  that  this  high  office  should 
be  sunk  and  degraded,  and  lost  in  Andrew  Jackson!  I  take 
no  pleasure  in  such  an  exposition. 

Thig,  then,  is  the  sort  of  man  who  commissioned  *<the  Go- 
vernment Directors,"  and  "devtSed  them  as  (his)  instruments," 
to  examine  into  and  report  to  him,  the  conduct  of  the  Bank. 
What  did*he  want?  Reasons,  I  answer,  to  send  among  the 
people,  whether  good  or  bad  was  of  no  moment,  to  justify  him 
in  wreaking  his  vengeance  on  this  institution.     They  were 


83 

required,  or  as  Mr.  Binney  has  it,  "coerced,"  to  furnish 
them. 

I  have  shown  the  nature  of  the  reports  made  under  the 
commissions  conferred,  in  part;  and  as  far  as  I  have  gone 
what  sort  of  reasons  were  furnished.  There  remains  one 
other  scintillation  to  expose  ia  tke  public,  and  which  was 
alone  sufficient  to  fire  the  magazine  of  President  Jackson's 
wrath  against  the  Bank.  It  was  that  which  exploded  it — or 
in  other  and  his  own  words,  "decided"  him.  What  was  it? 
The  representation,  I  answer,  hy  his  chosen  ones^  that  they 
were  treated,  whilst  employed  in,  the  business  entrusted  to 
them,  and  iinderthe  forms  which  he  had  prescribed,  with  in- 
dignity! That  was  enoughk  It  amounted,  in  his  view,  to  a 
direct  assault  upon  himself.  He  so  considered  it,  and  he  so 
treated  it. 

The  complaint  made  by  the  Government  Directors,  (after 
they  had  implicated  both  the  Bank  and  its  officers,  as  I  have 
shown,  and  with  what  truth  I  have  shown,  also,)  was,  in 
substance,  that  they  were  excluded  from  important  Commit- 
tees of  the  Bank,  and  were,  in  effect,  treated  with  contempt! 

Mr.  Binney,  in  his  admirable  speech  in  the  House  of  Re- 
presentatives, disposes  of  the  claim  of  right  set  up  bjr  these 
men  to  be  put  on  committees,  thus: 

"Their  right,"  he  says,  "tffbe  members  of  a%  committee,  has.no  more 
legal  support  than  the  right  of  a  member  of  this  House  (the  House  of  Re- 
presentalires)  to  be  upon  a  committee  appointed  by  this  House.  In  this 
House  it  depends  upon  its  pleasure,  or  upon  the  pleasure  df  the  Speaker. 
In  the  Board  of  Directors,  on  the  pleasure  of  the  Board — either  directly 
or  indirectly,  as  they  may  make  the  appointment  themselves,  or  give  the 
power  of  appointment  to  the  President  of  the  Board." 

Where  is  the  man,  or  set  of  men,  not  intent  on  exciting 
some  revengeful  passion  of  some  despot,  or  who  should  not 
be  grossly  misled,  that  would  ever  have  thought  of  making  a 
grave  charge  against  the  President  and  Directors  of  a  Bank 
for  not  preferring  them  over  experienced  Directors,  to  repre- 
sent the  great  interests  ofthe  Bank  on  important  committees. 
The  complaint  might  have  come  with  some  grace  from  the 
Neckers,  the  Gallatins  and  Biddies  of  the  world — (though 
they  would  have  scorned  to  make  it;)  but  coming  froni  those 


84 

who  made  it,  however  well  qualified  they  might  be  for  the 
duties  of  their  callings,  or  estimable  in  private  life,  the  com- 
plaint is,  in  all  eyes  except  their  own  and  President  Jack- 
son's, truly  ludicrous. 

What  these  Government  Directors  thought  of  themselves,  I 
must  let  the  reader  Icnow.»  They  were  exalted,  in  their  own 
estimation,  as  gods!  The  other  Directors  were  even  as 
grass-hoppers  in  their  sight.  Hear  them — (after  an  amplifi- 
cation ^f  their  attributes:) 

' ••And  yet  (they  say)  we  are  toldwith  a  hardihood  which  no- 
thing but  the  Q^pride  of  purse  can  explain,  that  the  PUBLIC  Directors, 
(that  is  themselves)  ^hus  devised  for  NATIONAL  purposes;  thus  desig- 
nated by  the  HIGHEST  NATIONAL  AUTHORITY;  thus  invested  as 
NATIONAL  OFFICERS,  with  NATIONAL  trusts,  and  RESPONSIBILT- 
TIES,  have  no  other  attributes,  or  duties^  than,  the  o;^o<Aer  Directors! !  !" 
The  foregoing  is  a  true  quotation,  from  "the  memorial"  of 
the  Government'  Directors.  It  is  a  marvellous  illustration  of 
the  fable  of  the  frog  and  the  ox.  But  I  forbear,  and  will  leave 
it  to  Mr.  Bloney  to  throw  upon  these  extraordinary  preten- 
sions, and  no  less  extraordinary  principles  and  conduct,  the 
light  of  his  powerful  mind. 

"Heretofore,"  says  this  great  man,  (in'the  speech  to  which  I  have  re- 
ferred) "in  the  history  of  the  bank,  the  directors  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States,  have  mingled  in  all  the  transactions  of  the  Bank, 
mutually  giving,  and  enjoying  universal  confidence,  and  being  in  no  rcz. 
sped  u>Aa/«)er.distingliished  from  tjie  other  directors.  Mr.  Biddle  himself 
was  a  director,  appointed  by  the  President,  for  many  years,  and  particu- 
larly in  the  unportant  years  of  1829,  '30,  '31,  and  '32;  and  other  gentle- 
men have,  from  time  to  time,  a6ted  upon  all  the  important  committees, 
including  the  committee  of  Exchange,  so  as  to  give  the  Bank  the  benefit 
of  their  peculiar  qualijications,  for,  it  must  always  have  been  a  question  of 
qualification,  and  if  a  director  was  not  qualified  for  a  particular  post,  it  is 
not  probable,  whatever  was  the  source  of  bis  appointment,  that  he  would 
be  placed  in  it. 

"But,  sir,  in  the  lime  oi  Wie present  government  directors,  a  change  has 
come  upon  us,  and  upon  the  Bank,  of  a  very  important  kind,  and  it  is  not 
surprising  that  it  has  affected  those  directors  also. 

"It  was  vehemently  suspected,  sir,  at  the  time  of  their  appointment,  that 
their  notions  of  duty  and  right  were  peculiar,-  that  they  deemed  them- 
Belves  bound,  or  entitled  to  use  their  posts  for  the  purpose  of  making  re- 
presentations to  the  President  of  the  United  Slates,  tending  to  OC/'excite 
odium  against  their  co-directors,  b)%impeaching  their  motives  and  acts, 
and  thus  to  impair  the  credit  of  the  Bank,\\^v^.  they  deemed  themselves  at 


§5 

liberty,  &c.  to  pursue  objects  which  they  did  not  care  to  avow;  and  which 
iheywere  not  PEUMITTED  to  avow,-  and  finally,  sir,  (hat  in  some  way,  by 
some  unexplained  theory  of  their  appointment,  they  had  come  to  the  opi- 
nion that  they  possessed  7?oZi7zca/ powers  in  the  institution  which  they 
were  authorised  to  use  for  poUlical  purposes.  All  this,  sir,  -vm  vehemently 
suspected;  and  if  the  suspicions  were  just,  the  propriety  of  placing  them 
in  posts  of  trust  and  confidence  in  the  Bank,  was  not  so  clear,  particular- 
ly, as,  if  they  were  so  placed,  it  might  have  been  difficult  to  persuade 
other  gentlemen  to  sit  beside  them  in  the  ocdupalion  of  those  posts.  QCj"! 
say,  sir,  it  might  have  been  extremely  difficult  to  persuade  gentlemen  of 
character,  having  some  feelings  and  reputation  of  their  own,  to  sit  in  a  post 
of  trust  and  confidence  by  the  side  of  directors  holding  such-  notions  of 
duty  and  right,  and  carrying  them  out,  without  avoiding  their  objects,  into 
measures  of  extreme  personal  annoyance,  as  well  as  discredit  to  the  Bapk. 
"Sir,  what  was  at  that  time,  perhaps,  no  more  than  vehement  suspicion, 
is  now,  and  for  some  time  past  has  been^  matter  of  0:j*UNQUESTION- 
ABLE  CERTAINTY;  and  the  certainty  is  derived  from  the  best  possible 
authority— the  CONFESSION  OF  THE  VERY  PARTY." 

Mr.  Binney  here  called  the  attention  of  the  house  to  "a 
part  of  a  letter  addressed  by  three  of  the  government  direc- 
tors to  the  President  of  the  United  States  on  the  22d  April, 
1833,  which  is  annexed  to  the  letter  of  the  Secretary." 
They  .say —  '      • 

•'Without  considering  any  portion  of  -our  remarks  as  falling  withip  the 
limits  of  those  private  accounts,  which,  as  you  state,  the  charter  has  so 
carefully  guarded,  since  the  whole  relate  to  the  action  of  the  Board  upon 
matters  fully  open,  and  discussed,  before  them,  and  extend,  in  no  instance 
to  the  private  debtor  and  creditor  accounts  of  individuals,  yet  we  may  be 
excused  for  expressing  much  gratification  at  your  assurance  that  the  in- 
formation requested  is  for  your  own  satisfaction,  and  that  ydt  do  not  wish 
it  to  extend  beyond  our.  personal  knowledge.  We  may  be  permitted  also 
to  add,  that  the  wishes  and  opinions  which  we  took  the  liberty  of  express- 
ing in  our  former  letter  have  been  since  more  strongly  confirmed,  and  that 
we  should  not  only  feel  more  satisfaction  ourselves,  but  be  enabled  to 
convey  to  you  more  full  and  correct  information,  were  we  to  proceed  in 
an  investigation,  WHOSE  OBJECT  IS  AVOWED,  and  if  we  were 
strengthened  by  that  ofpcial  sanction  which  we  suggested." 

"Then,  sir,"  exclaimed  Mr.  Binney,  "they  were  not  altogether  comfort- 
able in  their  new  position;  and  I  do  not  wonder  at  it.  Then,  their  object 
was  not  avowed,  and  they  ^were  not  PERMITTED  to  avow  it,  but  were 
COMPELLED,  by  their  own  sense  of  distress,  to  ask  for  an  official  sanction 
under  which  they  might  avow  it.  Then,  further,  they  were  practising 
concealment  themselves  and  trying  to  prosecute  aa  investigation,  without 
avowing  its  object,  when  that  object  is  now  known  to  have  been  to  incul- 
pate the  Board,  and  particularly  the  gentleman  at  the  head  of  it,  and  by 
means  of  the  odium  thus  excited,  to  justify  to  public  prejudice  an  act  of 


86 

deadly  hatred  to  the  Hank,  of  which  they  were  Directors — the  removal  of 
the  public  deposites;  and  then,  sir,  I  say  in  conclusion  that  there  is  not  an 
honourable  man  in  this  House,  or  IN  THIS  COUNTRY,  who  will  respond 
to  the  sentiment  that  they  were  treated  at  least  as  well  as  they  deserved  to 
be,  by  not  being  assisted  in  the  performance  of  these  remarkable  labours. 
With  this  confession  of  concealment  by  the  Government  Directors,  to 
which  they  were  coerced  by  the  Executive,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
arraigns  the  Board  for  concealing  its  operations  from  them;  he  charges  the 
Board  with  concealment,  in  violation  of  their  charter,  and  in  contempt  of 
the  Government,  when  the  head  and  front  of  their  offence  is  this,  only 
— 03=  that  they  would  not  consent  to  be  the  dupes  of  concealment  that 
was  practised  by  others." 

I  bespeak  the  public  attentrgn  to  a  continuation  of  Mr. 
Binney's  remarks^  with  which  I  shall  commence,  and  per- 
haps close,  the  next  number.  They  are  upon  a  most  extra- 
ordinary part  of  the  memorial  of ^the  Government  Directors. 

ARISTIDES. 


^        ■-  No.  20. 

The  reader  is  respectfully  solicited  to  follow  out  in  con- 
nexion with  .the  foregoing  number,  this  further  extract  from 
Mr.  Binney's  speech: 

"But  sir,"  said  Mr.  Binney,  "this  is  not  all.  The  memorial  of  the  Go- 
vernment Directors  to  this  House,  for  the  doctrines  of  which  we  are,  I 
presume,  indebted  to  the  professional  gentleman  (H.  D.  Gilpin)  whose 
name  is  at  iti^ head,  cannot  be  too  much  adverted  to,  in  connexion  with 
both  the  charge  of  concealment  by  the  Board,  and  Q^  oMo/Aer  charge  here- 
after to  be  noticed,  of  a  graver  description.  It  is  a  document  that  may  be 
considered  as  a  sort  of  small  martyrology — a  history  of  the  sufferings  inci- 
dent to  disappointed  efforts  and  mortified  pretensions;  and  it  contains,  as 
is  natural,  a  confession  of  the  faith  by  which  the  sufferers  have  been  sus- 
tained at  the  stake,  where  thev  have  placed  themselves." 

"I  beg  permission,"  says'Mr.  Binney,  *<to.  exhibit  it  to  the 
House."  And  I  beg  the  reader's  particular  attention  to  it. 
This  is  it:  ■  , 

■"  It  has  pleased  the  majority  of  the  Board  of  Directors,  (says 

the  memorial,)  in  the  document  to  which  we  refer,  in  order,  we  suppose, 
in  some  degree,  to  extenuate  their  conduct,  in  systematically  nullifying  the 
0;j*RKpBESEirrATiTxs  of  the  Goteiiitmbiit  and  the  People,  (meaning  them- 
selves,) to  deny  that  the  public  directors  are  seated  at  the  board  in  any 


87 

other  relation  than  themselves  to  deny  the  existence  of  any  difference  in 
the  official  character  and  duty  of  themselves  and  us.  •  •  • 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  that  the  public  Directors  were  QCj'  DEVISED 
AS  INSTRUMENTS— (I  beg  the  House,  said  Mr.  Binney,  to  advert  to 
the  felicity  of  the  language — 'were  devised  as  instruments.') — Nothing, 
(proceeds  the  memorial,)  can  be  plainer,  than  that  the  public  directors 
were  devised  as  instruments  for  the  attainment  of  public  objects;  that  their 
being  insisted  upon  in  the  charter  itself,  was  in  obedience  to  the  will  of 
those  who  elected  the  Legislative  body  by  which  it  was  passed;  and  that 
their  appointment  was  given  to  the  President,  with  the  advice  and  consent 
of  the  Senate  oTthe  United  States,  (not  to  the  mere  fiscal  representative,) 
in  order  to  clothe  them  with  all  the  character  of  official  representatives, 
and  to  OCT  exact  from  them  a  discharge  of  all  the  duties,  public,  politicai 
and  patriotic,  incident  to  a  trust,  so  conferred.  If  w%  are  mistaken  in  this, 
wc  acknowledge  that  our  solicitude  about  the  rights,  and  morals,  the  practi- 
cal purity  and  freedom  of  our  countrymen,  has  misled  us.  But  we  kaow 
that  we  are  not." 

Mr.  Binney  proceeds: 

"  Devised  as  instruments,  and  given  to  the  Pxesident,  to  'exa^ct'  from 
them  a  discharge  of  all  the  duties,  public,  political,  and  patriotic,  inci- 
dent to  a  trust  so  conferred! — The  sense  would  not  have  been  more  com- 
plete, sir,  though  the  alliteration  would  have  been  more  perfect,  if  they 
had  described  their  functions  as  extending  to  all  duties,  public,  political, 
patriotic,  and  pahtt." 

One  word  here — though  I  regret  to  make  a  breach  in  Mr. 
Binney's  onset  upon  such  a  train  of  absurdities.  I  am  only 
surprised  with  such  high,  notions  of  their  superior  dignity, 
these  men  consented  to  sit  at  the  same  board  with  "the  other 
directors;"  or  upon  seats  made  of  the  same  materials.  It 
were  easy  to  show  that  this  was  not  the  first  time  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world  and  its  affaifs,  that  men  were* not  only  made 
"dizzy,"  by  a  call  to  places  of  trust,  &c.,  but  argued  them- 
selves into  the  belief  that  but  for  them,  creation  itself  would 
be  embarrassed  by  a  vacuum  that  nothing,  merely  human,could 
fill.     But  to  Mr.  Binney. 

"  Now,  sir,"  says  Mr.  B.  "without  at  present  saying  whether 

this  theory  was  true,  the  olhtr  directors  had  a  right  to  counteracting  theory 
for  themselves:  and  if  it  is  true  that  the  government  directors  were  devised 
as  vistruments,  and  that  they  are  by  their  creation  poUlical  directors,  the 
other  directors,  who  have  not  been  so  devised,  are  entitled  to  consider  them- 
selves as  antipolitical  directors,  and  not  bound  to  assist  the  political  opera- 
tions of  the  other  branch;  but  rather,  by  the  momentum  of  theii*  greater 
numbers,  to  keep  them  from  moving  the  Bank  out  of  place.  « 


88 

"  But,  sir,  the  heads  of  the  memorialists  have  been  made  dizzy  by  their 
elevation.  Their  theory  has  no  foundation  in  reason,  or  in  the  charter.  I 
deny,  says  Mr.  Binney,  that  they  were  devised  as  instruments,  (Cj'whatever 
they  may  have  made  of  themselves.  There  is  not  a  shadow  of  difference 
between  the  rights  and  duties,  the  powers,  or  the  obligations  of  any  of  tlie 
directors;  they  are  ct//  directors,  neither  more,  nor  less,  and  owing  the 
same  duties  to  all  the  interests  confided  to  them.  The  directors  appointed 
by  the  President,  owe  a  duty  to  the  nation,  and  so  do  the  others,  and  in  my 
poor  judgment,  they  (the  others)  have  performed  it.  The  directors  elected 
by  the  stockholders,  owe  a  duty  to  the  Bank,  and  so  do  -the  directors  ap- 
pointed by  the  President,  but  they  (the  directors  appointed  by  the  Presi- 
dent) have  neither  performed,  nor  ack-nowledged  it.  They  are  not  placed 
there  to  make  enquiries  for  the  President.  The  President  has  no  autho- 
rity to  direct  enquiries  to  be  made  by  them.  This  is  a  question  of  charter 
power,  of  power  over  a  corporation,  all  of  whose  privileges  are  riglits  of 
property.  The  charter  gives  to  the  President  no  such  right.  It  expressly 
gives  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  a  right  of  limited  enquiry,  &c." 

Mr.  Binney  here  shows  what  powers  are  given  by  the 
charter,  not  by  inipncation,  but  expressly.  He  then  pro- 
ceeds: . 

"  But  here  is  a  power  to  be  implied  greater  than  all,  and  worse  than  all, 
a  power  to  be  exercised  [Xj^  secretly,  and  without  avowal,  ex  parte,  with- 
out notice,  without  opportunity  of  reply  or  explanation  being  given  to  those 
whom  it  ufiTects,  and  by  persons  who  are  holding,  to  all  appearance,  the  re- 
lations of  amity  with  their  co-Directors,  setting  on  the  same  seats,  and  pro- 
fessing the  same  general  objects. 

"  Sir,  the  Board  did  right  not  to  aid  them;  it  would  have  done  right  to 
resist  them,  and  I  inquire  of  the  members  of  this  House,  and  ask  them  to 
follow  out  their  honourable  feelings  into  the  reply — (Xj^  Would  tliey  con- 
sent to  sit  In^ommlttee  by  the  side  of  men  who  professed  principles  like  • 
these,  AND  SUBMITTED  THEMSELVES  10  THE  WILL  OF  AN- 
OTHER, as  to  the  (Cj"  manner  in  which  they  should  carry  them  into  exe- 
cution." 

The  reader  will  need  no  further  enlightening  on  the  assumed 
nature  of  the  rights  and  duties  of  the  Government  Directors. 
Nor  will  he  need  ever  again  to  be  told  why  the  Senate  rejected 
these  men,  when  put  in  nomination  as  government  directors 
for  another  term;  or  why  the  Senate  rejected  the  nomination 
of  one  for  Paymaster  in  the  Army";  and  another  for  Gover- 
nor of  the  Michigan  Territory. 

Whether  the  minds  of  these  men  be  peculiarly  constituted, 
or  whether,  by  reason  thereof,  they  arrive  at  conclusions  so 
preposterous  and  unjust,  as  those  into  which  they  reasoned 


89 

tliemselves  touching  the  relations  they  bore  to  '*lhe  other  Di- 
rectors," and  the  right  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
to  use  them  as  "instruments,"  or  whether  they  were  uncon- 
sciously governed  by  other  influences,  the  Senate  saw,  doubt 
Jess,  that  they  were  not  the  sort  of  persons,  however  harmless 
they  might  be  as  citizens,  to  invest  with  Government  authority, 
or  to  put  in  commission  for  the  discharge  of  responsible  Go- 
vernment trusts.  The  same  train  of  reasoning  would  have 
led  one  of  them  to  believe  thct  "all"  the  money  put  in  his 
possession  to  pay  the  troops,  belonged,  of  right,  to  himself; 
and  the  other  that  the  good  p'eople  of  Michigan  were  like  those 
"other  Directors,"  entirely  beneath  him;  or  that  they  were 
to  be  operated  upon,  and  reported  about,  as  were  the  acts  of 
the  Bank  and  its  officers,  and  to  be,  with  their  laws,  judged, 
and  condemned,  and  executed  accordingly. 

Well  has  Mr.  Binney  alluded  to  the  condition  of  these  men 
to  be  one  of  their  own  choosing.  They  are  "at  the  stake, 
where  they  have  placed  themselves." 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  21. 

Throughout  the  whole  progress  of  this  war  of  calumny 
against  the  Bank,  the  party  prosecuting  it,  never,  for  a  mo- 
ment, lost  sight  of  one  of  the  principal  parts  of  the  contriv- 
ance, viz: — to  create  new,  and  successive  suspicions  in  the 
public  mind,  and  send  round,  by  its  presses,  not  only  new, 
but  old  and  exploded  calumnies.  This  was  done  by  holding 
the  Bank  up,  always,  as  a  corrupt  institution,  and  needing  to 
be  constantly  watched,  and  examined,  either  by  agents,  ap- 
pointed by  the  Treasury,  or  by  '  instruments,'  appointed  by 
the  President,  or  by  committees,  appointed  by  Congress.  It 
was  reasonable  to  suppose,  that  after  the  public  treasure, 
which  the  Law  had  confided  to  the  safe-keeping  of  the  Bank, 
had  been  wrested  from  it  by  President  Jackson;  and  its  agency, 
which  the  Charter  had  conferred,  was,  by  that  same  function- 
ary, dispensed  with,  that  there  would  be  no  more  agents  of 

12 


90 

any  sort  appointed,  further  to  misrepresent,  calumniate,  and 
criminate  the  Bank.     But  the  character  of  this  party  perse- 
cution against  the  Bank,  being  of  the  same  quality  with  that 
of  individual  persecution,  it  sought  io  justify  itself,  after  the 
commission  of  the  wrong,  by  some  new  discovery,  of  some 
sort,  on  which  to  rest  some  new  charge  of  guilt,  and  justify 
the  outrage  that  had  been  committed.     Where  is  the  officer 
of  Government,  upon  whom  the  fangs  of  proscription  have 
been  fastened,  who  has  not  been  pursued  by  *the  party,'  and 
its  presses,  with  personal  abuse,  and  missiles  of  every  descrip- 
tion, to  blacken  his  character?     And  what  for?     To  justify, 
I  answer,  to  public  opinion,  the  act  that  drove  him  from  of- 
fice.  Just  so  with  the  Bank.    It  was  'proscribed.'    The  same 
lawless  violence  that  has  been  exerted  for  the  destruction  of 
hundreds,  nay,  thousands  of  individuals,  had  been  exerted 
against  the  Bank.    It  had  been  rifled  of  the  treasures  confided 
to  it  by  Congress — and  the  agency  which  the  Charter  con- 
ferred upon  it,  together  with  its  connexion  with  the  Govern- 
ment ;  the  one  had  been  dispensed  with,  and  the  other  rup- 
tured and  broken  up.     But  those  high-handed  and  lawless 
proceedings  were  not  carried  on  without  producing  in  the  con- 
sciences of  the  actors,  an  occasional  stir,  which  startled  them 
with  the  apprehension  that  the  people,  catching  a  glimpse  of 
the  enormity  of  the  wrong  and  outrage  which  had  been  com- 
mitted, would  speak  in  a  voice  of  terrible  rebuke,  and' drive 
them  from  their  positions  into  that  ignominy  which  they  felt 
they  merited.     Hence,  as  was,  and  is  their  conduct,  in  pur- 
suing the  victims  they  'proscribe,'  and  drive  from  office,  so 
was,  and  is  their  conduct  towards  the  Bank.     They  dread, 
to  this  hour,  the  lifting  of  the  curtain  that  shall  expose  to  public 
view  the  lawlessness  of  their  acts,  and  the  corruption  of  their 
plans  and  purposes  towards  the  Bank. 

It  was  this  feeling — and  when  the  country,  alarmed,  and 
embarrassed,  from  one  extremity  to  the  other,  as  it  was — 
when  it  beheld  the  President  of  a  free  people,  professing  to 
act  under  the  Constitution  and  Laws  of  this  Republic,  wrest- 
ing, without  law,  and  against  law,  the  public  treasure  from 
the  place  where  the  laws  had  placed  it,  that  prompted  *  the 


91 

party*  to  get  up  a  Committee  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, and  place  Mr.  Thomas,  of  Maryland,  at  its  head.  The 
sole  object  of  this  manoeuvre  was,  to  keep  alive  suspicion 
against  the  Bank,  and  to  feed  the  public  mind  with  such  ex- 
citing food,  as  the  plan  of  operations  determined  upon  might 
place  within  their  reach.  It  was,  in  a  word,  a  shield  thrown 
up  by  'the  party,'  to  guard  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  followers 
from  the  indignation  of  an  insulted  and  outraged  people. 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind,  that  the  Bank  had  been  ex- 
amined and  reported  upon,  by  a  committee,  of  which  Judge 
Clayton  was  chairman,  and  of  which  committee  Mr.  Thomas 
was  a  member.  It  will  also  be  borne  in  mind  that  Judge 
Clayton,  after  making  his  report,  criminating  both  the  bank 
and  its  officers,  made  ample  atonement,  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  for  the  wrong  which  he  had  done 
both  to  the  Bank  and  its  officers.  The  able  counter  reports 
of  Messrs.  M'Duffie  and  Adams,  and  others,  will  also  be  borne 
in  mind,  nor  will  it  be  forgotten  that  when  Judge  Clayton 
actually  repudiated  his  report,  it  left  the  report  of  Messrs. 
M'Duffie  and  Adams,  to  stand  not  on  their  own  merits  only, 
but  supported  by  the  testimony  of  Judge  Clayton  himself. 

This  committee,  designed  as  a  shield  to  protect  "the  party," 
was  formed  for  the  avowed  purpose  of  "ascertaining  the  cause 
of  the  commercial  embarrassment  and  distress  complained  of 
by  numerous  citizens  of  the  United  States  in  sundry  memo- 
rials," &c. — and  "whether  the  charter  of  the  Bank  has  been 
violated ;  and  what  CORRUPTIONS,  and  ABUSES  have 
existed  in  its  management ;"  and  whether  it  has  used  its  cor- 
porate power,  or  money,  to  control  the  press,  to  interfere  in 
politics,  or  influence  elections,  and  whether  it  has  had  any 
agency,  through  its  management,  or  money,  in  producing  the 
existing  pressure,  &c.  &c. 

Now  here  we  have  it !  The  only  new  feature  in  the  busi- 
ness entrusted  to  this  new  committee,  that  was  not  on  the 
face  of  the  committee,  of  which  Judge  Clayton  was  chairman, 
is  that  which  relates  to  the  cause  of  the  commercial  embar- 
rassment ;  and  this  was  got  up  to  make  the  people  believe, 
by  implication  at  least,  that  tKe  Bank  was  the  author  of  it. 


^2 

I  sincerely  wish  the  limits  to  which  I  feel  bound  to  con6ne 
these  essays,  permitted  a  detailed  history  of  the  proceedings 
of  this  committee.  Never  in  the  world's  history,  did  men, 
professing  to  be  intelligent  and  honest,  so  weaken  their  claims 
on  public  opinion,  to  both  these  characters.  The  whole  af- 
fair, to  the  intelligent  eye,  must  look  like  some  low  farce. 
In  the  first  place  they  refused  the  aid  of  a  committee  of  the 
Bank,  or  to  permit  it  to  be  present  in  the  room  while  they 
were  overhauling  the  books  and  papers  of  the  Bank.  Now  I 
put  the  question  to  every  intelligent  reader,  and  ask,  if  the 
Board  had  not  appointed  such  a  committee,  whether  the  ex- 
amining committee  ought  not  to  have  asked  it  to  do  so  1  If 
their  object  was  truth,  could  not  such  gentlemen  as  the  board 
named  as  its  committee  have  pointed  the  way  to  it  better 
than  a  set  of  men  could  find  it  from  books  and  papers  with 
which  they  could  not  be  supposed  to  be  familiar  ?  Or  would 
the  presence  of  the  committee  of  the  Bank  have  changed  in 
the  slightest  degree,  a  single  entry,  or  overshadowed  a  single 
fact? 

The  refusal  to  sit  in  the  room  with  the  Bank  committee, 
or  to  conduct,  in  their  presence,  the  inquiries  with  which  they 
were  charged,  can  be  regarded  in  no  other  light,  than  as  a 
confession  of  a  purpose  to  pick,  and  cull,  and  work  up  such 
colouring  matter,  (as  had  been  hefore  prepared  by  men  of 
the  same  party,)  as  to  make  the  Bank  look  to  the  eyes  of  the 
people  just  as  Andrew  Jackson  and  his  followers  wished  it  to 
look.  Being  so  seen,  he,  and  they,  calculated  on  being  sus- 
tained in  the  lawless  acts  of  which  they  had  been  guilty. 

The  next  move  of  this  examining  committee  was  to  demand 
to  have  the  Bank's  books  and  papers  sent  through  the  streets, 
and  all  custody  of  the  officers  of  the  bank  over  them  to  be 
surrendered,  to  the  North  American  Hotel ! ! ! 

I  am  bound  to  believe  that  when  this  demand  was  made, 
not  a  single  member  of  the  committee  believed  it  would  be 
complied  with.  The  object  was,  to  make  a  charge  against 
the  Bank,  and  through  the  party  and  subsidized  presses,  to 
make  the  people  believe  that  the  Bank  refused  to  have  its 


93 

conduct  examined,  out  of  which,  by  implication,  the  sentence 
ofGUILTY  wastocome. 

The  last  act  of  this  farce  was  to  command,  through  the 
Marshal,  the  personal  presence  of  Nicholas  Biddle,  and  the 
other  Directors,  before  the  examining  committee,  at  their 
room,  at  Mrs.  Yohe's  North  American  Hotel.  I  never  heard 
but  one  feeling  among  enlightened  people  on  this  whole  pro- 
ceeding, and  that  was  contempt. 

It  may  suffice  to  conclude  this  number,  and  this  sketch  of 
reference  to  the  acts  and  doings  of  this  famous  committee,  by 
saying,  if  any  opinion  can  be  deduced  from  the  action  of  Con- 
gress on  this  report,  it  was  in  corroboration  of  that  which  was 
felt  and  expressed  out  of  Congress,  for  so  far  as  I  have  been 
able  to  ascertain,  the  report,  with  the  recommendation  with 
which  it  closed,  were  (except  to  print  it)  left  to  expire  in  its. 
own  utter  worthlessness.  Not  a  muscle  of  it  has  been  stirred, 
nor  a  breath  perceived  to  expand  its  chest,  since  it  was  pre- 
sented to  the  House.  There  it  lies  a  monument  of  the  weak- 
ness of  its  authors,  and  of  the  recklessness  and  wickedness  of 
"  the  party.". 

I  shall  notice  Mr.  Tyler's  report  in  my  next ;  and  show 
from  it  that  all  I  have  said  in  these  essays  in  defence  of  the 
Bank,  and  its  integrity,  and  great  public  utility,  and  of  its 
calumniators,  is  true. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  22. 

The  reader  need  not  be  reminded,  that,  upon  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  has  devolved  the  high  and  sacred  duty  of 
preserving  what  remains  to  us  of  our  free  institutions,  and 
the  liberty  which  these  confer.  The  fact  is  notorious.  All 
intelligent  people  know  it;  and  all  honest  citizens  admit  it. 
Profligate  party  leaders,  it  is  true,  denounce  and  call  it  the 
"refractory  Senate,"  and  their  instruments  echo  the  denuncia- 
tion. But  in  this  very  opposition  to  the  Senate,  and  in  the 
attempts  to  degrade  it  in  the  eyes  of  the  people,  in  connexion 


94 

with  the  glorious  stand  it  has  taken  against  Presidential  usur- 
pation, lies  the  proof  of  its  devotion  to  liberty  and  the  consti- 
tution, and  to  the  ''general  welfare." 

The  Senate  witnessed  the  repeated  onsets  made  by  Jack- 
sonism  upon  the  rights  of  the  citizen,  the  constitution,  and 
the  laws, — one  of  the  most  alarming  of  which  was,  its  utter 
contempt  of  the  rights  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  in  the 
vindictive  war  which  was  waged  upon»it,  and  in  the  removal 
of  the  public  deposites.  It  heard  the  "war  cry: — "UNCOM- 
PROMISING HOSTILITY  TO  THE  BANK  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES,"  it  saw  the  measures  resorted  to  for 
the  overthrow  of  that  Bank,  and  along  with  it,  the  prostration 
of  the  best  interests  of  the  people — and  it  was  acquainted,  as 
its  position  enabled  it  to  be,  with  the  workings  of  the  entire 
machinery  that  was  put  in  motion,  to  produce  all  these  conse- 
quences. Yes,  from  the  Woodbury  plot,  down  to  the  Thomas 
Committee,  the  Senate  saw  the  workings  of  that  mischievous 
and  vindictive  spirit,  that,  regardless  of  consequences,  though 
it  should  involve  the  very  liberties  of  the  country,  had  re- 
solved on  crushing  (as  Gen.  Jackson  denominated  the  Bank) 
*'the  monster." 

It  was  most  natural  for  this  august  body,  amidst  the  shower 
of  disgraceful  rumours,  which  'the  party'  had  caused  to  fall 
all  over  the  United  States,  implicating  the  integrity  of  the 
Bank,  and  the  character  of  its  officers,  to  resolve  on  having 
the  whole  matter  put  forever  to  rest,  by  an  examination,  to 
be  conducted  by  a  committee  of  its  own.  If  what  had  been 
so  boldly  charged  against  the  Bank  be  true,  the  Senate  doubt- 
less reasoned,  let  the  facts  be  disclosed  to  prove  it;  \i  false,  let 
the  world  know  it.  It  is  high  time  for  those  who  seek  to 
know  the  truth  in  this  matter,  to  be  possessed  of  the  means 
for  reaching  it. 

The  Senate  determined,  therefore,  to  confide  this  import- 
ant examination  to  its  own  Committee  on  Finance.  Instruc- 
tions were  accordingly  given  to  that  Committee,  in  a  resolu- 
tion of  the  30th  June  last,  when  it,  (Mr.  Tyler,  of  Virginia, 
being    Chairman,)   immediately   after  the   adjournment  of 


^5 

Congress,  commenced  the  investigation  with  which  it  was 
charged. 

We  all  know  the  confusion  into  which  the  appointment  of 
this  Committee  threw  the  calumniators  of  this  abused  and 
proscribed  institution.  There  was  a  quailing  that  the  dim- 
mest eye  could  not  fail  to  discover;  and  a  blanching  was 
visible  in  the  faces  of  even  the  most  hardened  Bank  denouncer. 
Nobody  doubted  the  honour  of  this  Committee;  none  its 
intelligence.  Every  body  looked  to  its  report  with  confi- 
dence, whilst  those  who  had  falsely  implicated  the  Bank,  knew, 
that  though  justice  had  been  slow  in  overtaking  them,  it  was 
now  to  be  awarded. 

I  deeply  regret  that  I  have  not  the  power  to  put  this  report, 
entire,  in  the  hands  of  every  citizen  of  the  Republic.  1  feel 
that  in  the  analysis  I  propose  to  make  of  it,  I  shall  be  doing 
injustice  to  both  it  and  the  reader.  It  ought  to  be  sought  after, 
and  read  by  every  one  who  takes  any  interest  in  this  great 
question,  (and  who,  as  an  American,  is  not  interested  in  it?) 
or  who  has  been  influenced  by  any  thing  that  has  hitherto  been 
written,  or  said,  in  regard  to  the  subject  of  it. 

The  Thomas  report  contains  a  charge  against  DC7^  "  the 
President  and  Board  of  Directors  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  for  refusing  to  submit  for  inspection  the  books  and 
papers  of  the  Bank" — and  otherwise  it  implicates,  them  as 
COMBINED  tofRusTRATE  the  examination,  and  as  having,finally, 
frustrated  it. 

Now  what  says  the  report  of  the  Tyler  Committee? 

"  They  deem  it  proper  to  say,  that,  in  the  examination  which 


they  have  made,  every  facility  was  afforded  by  the  officers  of  the  institution, 
which  the  committee  could  have  desired.  No  hesitation  or  reluctance  was 
manifested  in  furnishing  any  book  or  paper  which  was  requested,  and 
every  avenue  to  a  full  and/ree  invest'^ation,  not  only  at  the  Bank,  but  at 
the  several  branches  visited  by  the  committee,  or  any  member  of  it,  was 
promptly  laid  open." 

What  a  comment  on  the  text  of  the  I'homas  report?  One 
of  two  conclusions  must  be  arrived  at  by  every  reader — 
either  the  Thomas  report  is  false;  or  the  committee  so  con- 
ducted itself  as  to  make  it  obligatory  on  the  President  and 
Directors  of  the  Bank,  from  self-respect,  or  to  secure  the 


96 

institution  from  some  heavy  calamity,  which  that  committee 
must  have  been  discovered  meditating,  to  take  the  ground 
they  did.  There  could  have  been  nothing  personal  against 
the  one  committee,  or  i  n  favour  of  the  other.  But  the  Thomas 
report  is  its  own  best  comment.  It  needs  not  that  the  Bank, 
or  any  one  for  it,  should  expiam  why  such  a  charge  was  made 
against  the  President  and  Directors.  The  report  explains, 
and  to  any  honest  mind,  jvstijies  the  course  which  thai  com- 
mittee compelled  the  President  and  Directors  to  take. 

It  is  enough  for  the  public  to  know  that  when  another  sort 
of  committee,  one  carrying  with  it  just  notions  of  right  and 
justice,  presented  itself  at  the  Bank,  the  whole  bank,  books, 
papers  and  all,  were  thrown  open  to  its  examination,  and  it  is 
on  an  examination  thus  made,  that  the  Tyler  committee  rests 
its  report. 

The  "Government  Directors,"  and  the  Thomas  committee, 
could  see  many  acts  of  the  Bank  which  had  "violated  its 
charter.^'  This,  though  continually  harped  upon  and  enforced, 
was  never  believed,  if  by  these  men,  by  those  who  held  the 
key  of  President  Jackson's  purposes— for  if  it  had,  even  in  a 
single  instance,  as  was  so  often  asserted,  violated  its  charter, 
there  is  no  man  of  common  sense  who  will  for  a  moment 
doubt  that  steps,  such  as  are  provided  for  in  the  charter,  would 
have  been  instantly  taken,  and  the  work  of  the  Bank's  over- 
throw been  made  as  sudden  as  complete.  It  was  because  the 
declarations  "were  NOT  TRUE,,  and  because  they  were 
known  to  be  not  true,  that  a  scire  facias  was  not  sued  out 
simultaneously  with  their  being  made. 

The  first  question  which  the  Tyler  Committee  propose  to 
examine  is: 

"  Has  the  Bank  violated  its  charter?" 

In  the  examination  of  this  question,  the  several  acts  of  the 
Bank,  in  which  it  was  charged  to  have  violated  its  charter, 
were  minutely  examined. 

These  are  embraced  under  the  following  lieads. 

1.  The  Exchange  Committee. 

2.  The  Branch  Drafts. 

3.  The  Contract  with  the  Barings. 


97 

It  will  be  borne  in  mind  that  the  "instruments"  of  Presi- 
dent Jackson,  under  all  their  forms,  including  his  official 
organ,  near  him,  at  Washington,  and  its  subordinates  all  over 
the  country — all  pressed  these  points  upon  the  public;  and 
even  Mr.  Secretary  Taney,  and  the  President,  asserted  and 
enforced  the  declaration,  that  the  Bank  had  violated  its  char- 
ter. But  as  I  have  said,  there  was  not  a  man  of  them  believed 
it — or  rather,  1  should  say,  those  who  managed  President 
Jackson,  and  kept  the  key  of  his  purposes,  knew  that  the 
charges  were  false.  But  they  were  necessary  to  the  plan, 
and  "the  party." 

Hear  the  conclusion  of  the  Tyler  report  on  the  question — 
"  Has  the  Bank  violated  its  charter^ 

"  The  language  of  the  Bank  charter  is  almost  in  substance  the  language 
employed  in  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  in  reference  to  the  two 
Houses  of  Congress,  which  declares  that  'a  majority'  (of  each  House)  shall 
be  necessary  to  constitute  a  quorum  to  do  business.  With  as  much  pro- 
priety might  it  be  urged  that  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  had 
violated  the  Constitution  by  creating  committees,  or  appointing  agents  to 
execute  the  laws,  as  that  the  directors,  'seven  of  whom  are  necessary  for 
the  transaction  of  business,'  had  violated  their  charter  by  the  exercise  of  a 
similar  power.  The  committee  of  Exchange  was  created  at  the  same  time 
with  the  committee  on  the  offices,  and  other  committees,  has  continued  ever 
since,  (it  is  almost  coeval  with  the  Bank  itself,)  and  exists,  as  your  com- 
mittee believes,  QCj^not  only  in  STRICT  CONFORMITY  WITH  THE 
CHARTER,  but  with  advantage  to  the  Bank,  and  (Ej"  CONVENIENCE 
TO  THE  PUBLIC." 

The  reader  will  lose  the  masterly,  and  demonstrative  illus- 
tration which  brought  the  committee  to  this  conclusion.  He 
will  miss  also  the  sight  of  that  consumingfire  which  has  burned 
to  cinders  the  declarations  of  those  who,  with  such  varied 
effort,  strove,  and  succeeded  in  making  many,  too  many,  be- 
lieve, that  this  committee  was  not  only  unconstitutional,  but 
used  by  the  Bank  for  corrupt  purposes.  If  ever  the  agents 
of  any  plot  were  discomfited,  and  disgraced,  those  are,  who 
joined  the  hue  and  cry  against  the  Bank,  on  the  acts  of  this 
exchange  committee. 

The  second  head  of  examination  was: 

«  THE  BRANCH  DRAFTS." 

The  issuing  of  these  drafts  was  denounced  as  violating  the 

13 


98 

charter.     Under  this  head  the  committee  make  an  exposition 
that  must  put  the  subject  to  rest  forever.     They  say: 

"  The  committee  purposely  avoid  an  elaborate  argument  on  either  side. 
They  content  themselves  with  stating  the  general  principles  on  which  their 
several  opinions  are  founded,  and  submitting  them  to  the  Senate  and  the 
country.  Those  who  maintain  the  legality  of  these  issues  are  sustained  by 
high,  legal  opinion,  (Mr.  Binney,  Mr.  Webster,  and  Mr.  Wirt)  and  in  a 
great  degree  by  the  fact,  that  for  years  past,  the  government  has  taken 
those  drafts;  uniformly,  as  money,  in  the  payment  of  its  dues;  thus  virtually 
acquitting  the  Bank  from  all  liability  to  forfeiture,  and  giving  the  drafts 
themselves  the  impress  of  a  legal  currency.  Nor  do  they  perceive  that  the 
country  has,  by  the  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  government,  sustained 
any  loss.  These  drafts  are,  every  where,  current,  are  redeemed  by  the 
Bank  with  promptitude  and  readiness,  and  answer  to  commerce  all  the  pur- 
poses of  an  unquestionable  legal  currency." 

Here  again  I  regret,  that  it  is  not  practicable  for  me  to  give 
to  the  reader,  the  exposition  of  this  branch  of  the  committee's 
enquiry  in  detail.  I  urge  it  upon  those  who  seek  a  full  en- 
lightening on  this  subject,  to  get,  and  read  the  report,  and  the 
documents  on  which  it  rests. 

The  third  branch  of  enquiry  under  the  charge  of  **the 
Bank  has  violated  its  charter," — is,  "the  contract  with  the 
Barings."  I  defer  this  to  my  next,  and  painful  as  it  will  be, 
I  shall  have  to  send  round  a  palpable  falsehood,  which  the 
committee  pin^  (and  which  it  doubtless  gave  them  great  pain 
to  do,)  on  President  Jackson  himself — I  will  not  snyjalsehood, 
for  when  he  came  across  the  declaration,  which  was  written 
in  his  address  to  his  cabinet,  1  will  assume  that  he  believed  it 
was  true.  But  then,  as  he  had  "his  foot  on  the  neck  of  the 
monstcF,"  why  did  he  not  slay  it  at  once  by  a  scire  facias.  It 
was,  as  I  shall  show,  nevertheless,  false.  Who  palmed  this 
falsehood  on  the  President,  it  concerns  him,  not  we,  to  know. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  23. 

I  have  said  the  Committee  of  the  United  States  Senate 
have,  in  their  report,  under  that  decision  of  it,  headed — "The 
contract  with  the  Barings,"  pinned  a  falsehood  on  President 


99 

Jackson's  address  to  his  cabinet.  The  Committee  call  it  "a 
direct  allegation  against  the  Bank."  What  is  it?  Here  it 
is: — 

"The  agent  (Gen.  Cadwallader)  made  an  arrangement  (with 

the  Barings,  in  relation  to  the  3  per  cents)  on  terms,  in  part,  which  were 
in  DIRECT  VIOLATION  OF  THE  CHARTER;  and  when  some  inci- 
dents connected  with  this  secret  negotiation  QI^/'A.CCIDENTALLY  came 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  Public,  and  the  Government,  then,  and  not  be- 
fore, so  much  as  was  palpably  in  violation  of  the  Charter,  was  disavowed." 
Now,  here  again  I  must  remark,  that  the  writer  of  this,  (I 
take  for  granted  it  was  not  Gen.  Jackson,)  I  care  not  who  he 
was,  KNEW  that  what  he  asserted,  as  to  the  violation  of  the 
Charter,  was  not  true;  and  the  conclusion  is  forced  upon  me, 
that  if  Gen.  Jackson  believed  it  was  true,  there  were  those 
who  knew  it  was  not,  having  suflficient  control  over  him,  to 
prevent  him  from  sueing  out  a  scire  facias,  and  putting  an 
end,  at  once,  to  the  Bank.  Does  it  not  constantly  occur  to 
every  reasonable  mind,  that,  if  the  Bank  really  had  violated 
its  Charter,  as  President  Jackson,  and  Mr.  Taney,  and  the 
Government  Directors,  and  the  Globe,  and  all  the  affiliated 
presses  constantly  asserted  it  had,  that,  if  they  believed  what 
they  said,  they  would  not  have  struck  it  out  of  existence  by 
a  scire  facias?  Would  men  carry  on  a  strife,  suoh  as  they 
conducted — expose  themselves  to  the  effects  of  a  warfare  so 
protracted,  and  finally  to  the  heavy  judgments  of  an  insulted 
people,  for  usurping  a  power  for  the  Bank's  overthrow, 
when,  by  a  simple  legal  process,  provided  for  in  the  Charter, 
the  destruction  of  the  object  of  their  hate  and  vengeance, 
could  have  been  made  complete?  I  answer— No;  and  I  shall 
be  responded  to  by  all  men,  of  all  parties,  who  have  sense 
enough  to  comprehend  the  clearness  of  the  proposition,  and 
honesty  enough  to  speak  what  they  think.  But  hear  the 
Committee  on  this  grave  charge: 
"The  charge  thus  made,"  (says  the  Committee,)  implicates  most 

strongly  the  character  of  the  Directors  of  the  Bank — not  only  as  unworthy, 
but  DISHONEST  agents."  It  is  no  more  or  less  than  a  charge,  that  if  the 
negociation  could  have  been  kept  a  profound  secret,  they  would  have 
sanctioned  it  in  all  its  parts;  but  that  they  were  driven  from  this  purpose 
by  the  fact,  "that  some  incidents  connected  with  this  secret  negociation 
accidentally  came  to  the  knowledge  of  the  public  and  the  government," 
and  that  in  order  to  save  themselves  from  public  odium,  and  the  Bank 


100 

from  the  effects  of  this  violation  of  its  Charter,  they  dishonoured,  so  far 
as  they  could  do  so,  the  agent  (Gen.  Cadwallader)  whom  they  had  em- 
ployed, by  disavowing  his  act.  "If  this  charge"  (proceed  the  Committee) 
"be  well  founded,  the  Committee  have  no  hesitation  in  saying,  that  the 
Bank  is  not  only  responsible  for  the  conduct  of  the  Exchange  Committee, 
that  Committee  having  acted  in  the  matter  under  a  resolution  of  the 
Board,  investing  them  with  full  authority,  but  that  the  Directors  connected 
with  the  transaction  have  proved  themselves  unworthy  of  their  places." 

From  this  opinion  of  the  committee  the  reader  may  infer 
how    rank  and  deadly  was  the  poison  that    was  thus   at- 
tempted to  he  infused  DC?'by  President  Jackson  himself,  into 
the  characters  of  honourable  men,  and  into  the  fiscal  agent  of 
the  country! 

Here  again,  I  feel  how  important  it  is  for  the  reader  to 
know  the  details  of  this  case.  They  are  no  less  satisfactory 
than  abundant  and  well  attested.  I  must  beg  to  employ  so 
much  of  them,  as  will  settle  the  question  of  the  truth  or  false- 
hood of  the  direct  allegation  made  against  the  bank  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  to  his  cabinet,  as  above  quoted. 
"Two  of  the  members  of  the  Exchange  Committee,"  says  the  report, 
"men  of  acknowledged  probity  and  honour,  were  examined  on  oath  be- 
fore a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  in  February,  1833,  and 
in  reply  to  the  following  questions;  *Had  the  President  of  the  Exchange 
Committee  any  intention  to  disavow  Gen.  Cadwallader's  authority  to  make 
the  contract  he  did,  until  after  the  appearance  in  the  New  York  papers 
of  the  11th  or  12ll\  of  October  last,  of  the  circular  of  the  Baring's  to  the 
foreign  stockholders  of  the  United  States  three  per  cent,  stocks,  announ- 
cing to  them  that  they  had  the  authority  of  the  bank  to  purchase  or  nego- 
tiate a  postponement  of  the  stocks  held  by  them?' "  Answer  of  Mr.  Eyre 
—"I  can  say  YES,  POSITIVELY.  I  recollect  it  perfectly  well.  When  I 
first  read  this  letter  of  Gen.  Cadwallader  (of  22d  August)  I  said  it  was  not 
proper,  and  disavowed  it." 

AnsVer  of  Mr.  Bevan — 

"I  never  did  see,  myself,  the  notice  referred  to  in  the  New  York 
papers,  but  well  recollect  the  moment  the  letter  was  received  giving  in- 
formation of  the  proceedings  in  relation  to  that  negociation.  The  Presi- 
dent of  the  Bank,  with  the  approbation  of  the  Exchange  Committee,  im- 
mediately wrote,  disavowing  the  nature  of  that  arrangement— it  having 
been  made  under  a  misapprehension." 

These,  say  the  Committee,  are  the  facts,  then,  (including  a 
most  satisfactory  history  of  the  case,  which  I  have  not  room 
to  insert)  which  attend  on  this  transaction.  If  reference  be 
had  to  the  letters  of  instructions,  continues  the  report,  under 


101 

which  the  agent  acted,  those  instructions  look  to  an  arrange- 
ment for  the  postponement  of  the  period  of  redemption  of 
the  stocks,  and  [Cr'not  a  word  is  said  about  a  purchase. 

"If,  says  the  Committee,  Mr.  Eyre  and  Mr.  Bevan  are  to 
be  believed,  when  testifying  on  oath  before  a  Committee  of 
Congress,  then,  is  there  no  reason  to  believe  that  "incidents 
connected  with  this  secret  negotiation,  accidently  coming  to 
the  knowledge  of  the  public  and  the  government,  induced  the 
Bank  to  disavow  the  act  of  its  agent  in  opposition  to  its  own 
views  and  previous  intentions." 

And  here  let  the  reader  pause  and  ask  himself,  especially 
if  he  be  of  the  number  of  those  who  have  been  led  astray  by 
such  glaring  and  mischievous  falsehoods,  what  it  is  he  owes 
to  the  men  who  have  thus  misled  him,  and  to  himself?  If  af- 
ter a  just  analysis  of  this  matter,  he  can  feel  for  those  libel- 
lous slanderers  who  make  it  their  business,  as  is  proved  they 
have  done,  to  cut  and  thrust  at  the  reputation  of  honourable 
citizens,  andpour  on  their  "good  name"  one  constant  stream 
of  malignant  slander,  and  to  level  to  the  ground  by  such 
means,  one  of  the  most  useful  public  monied  institutions  that 
has  ever  existed;  I  say,  if  after  this,  he  can  entertain  for  them 
any  other  feeling  than  contempt  and  loathing,  he  must  have  a 
medium  through  which  to  contemplate  such  acts,  other  than 
that  through  which  high-minded  men  are  accustomed  to 
look.  The  duty  every  man  owes  to  himself  under  such  cir- 
cumstances, is  no  less  plain.  He  cannot  do  else  than  resume 
the  ground  he  may  have  occupied  before  he  was  seduced  from 
it  by  such  reckless  and  wicked  instruments,  without  sharing 
in  the  infamy  of  their  doings. 

There  is  in  such  an  exposure,  cause  of  deep  grief.  Blushes 
must  suffuse  the  cheeks  of  every  American  citizen,  at  home 
and  abroad,  when  he  sees  the  chief  magistrate  of  his  country 
lending  himself  to  his  own  'instruments,'  to  be  used  by  them 
for  the  destruction  of  what  is  more  dear  to  men  than  their 
lives — viz:  their  *good  names,' ^nd  for  the  prostration  of  a 
fiscal  agent,  the  creation  of  the  wisest  counsels,  and  of  the 
most  patriotic  hearts.  But  shall  these  doings  not  be  exposed? 
Shall  men  be  permitted  to  intrench   themselves  behind  the 


102 

bulwarks  of  such  malicious  slanders  as  these?  pull  to  pieces, 
without  cause,  all  that  is  good  around  them,  and  leave  the 
garden  of  our  liberty  a  wild!  and-  that,  which,  through  the 
toils  and  blood  of  the  revolution,  was  made  a  fit  and  glorious 
residence  for  the  free,  not  only  of  the  present,  but  future  ge- 
nerations, a  desert?  Instead  of  that  harmony  that  should 
characterize  the  citizens  of  the  republic,  a  discord  more  fell 
than  any  that  has  ever  disgraced  the  most  corrupt  governments 
of  the  old  world,  has  been  introduced  by  Jacksonism,  exhibit- 
ing as  one  of  its  first  fruits,  a  scramble  for  office  and  a  lust  of 
place,  that  gives  to  its  proscriptive  character,  all  the  ferocity 
that  belongs  to  the  beasts  of  the  forest.  This  is  the  secret  of 
that  professed  regard  [for  the  people,^  which  under  cover  of 
that  false  pretence,  has  placed  Andrew  Jackson  in  the  front 
rank  of  his  followers,  to  defend,  and  keep  the  power  and 
places  they  hold;  and  to  trample  down  any  thing,  and  every 
thing  that  is  suspected,  even,  of  controlling,  or  regulating  their 
outrageous  proceedings,  and  to  secure  a  succession. 

Painful  as  the  task  is  which  I  have  imposed  on  myself,  and 
lead  to  what  consequences  it  may,  I  shall  go  through  with  it. 
It  grieves  me  to  say,  I  have  yet  other  demonstrations  to  give 
of  the  vindictive  character,  and  disreputable  acts  of  those  who 
have  rallied  under  the  standard  bearing  the  motto — 

"UNCOMPROMISING    HOSTILITY  TO   THE 

BANK  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES." 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  24. 

*  These,'  say  the  Committee,  'are  all  the  charges  against 
the  Bank,  tending  to  implicate  it  in  a  violation  of  its  charter, 
into  which  the  Committee  deemed  it  necessary  to  enter.' 
The  intelligent  reader  will  understand  the  committee  as  ex- 
cluding a  whole  mass  of  insignificant  implications  made  on  this 
head,  by  the  government  directors,  and  the  Thomas  Commit- 
tee, and  by  the  President  of  the  United  States,  and  his  hosts 
of  retainers  and  followers.     All  but  the  ignorant,  and  those 


103 

who  knew  better,  but  chose-  to  employ  this  charge  against 
the  Bank,  knowing  it  to  be  false,  T  mean  the  enlightened  por- 
tion of  the  community,  knew,  while  these  'instruments'  were 
employed  in  this  branch  of  the  war,  that  there  was  no  foun- 
dation in  truth,  to  support  their  assertions — but  they  were 
relied  upon  as  a  part  of  *  the  party'  scheme  to  delude  the 
people. 

We  have  had  a  remarkable  illustration  of  the  readiness  of 
Gen.  Jackson's  'instruments'  in  two  most  remarkable  cases, 
to  do  what  he  commands :  First,  in  the  readiness  with  which 
the  government  directors  undertook  the  business  entrusted  to 
them, — MODE  and  all ;  and  second,  in  the  readiness  of  another 
set  of  instruments  to  back  him  in  his  war  upon  Gov.  Poindex- 
ter.  He  commanded,  as  if  by  magic,  the  ready  assent  and 
labours  of  each,  having  the  same  object  in  view,  viz : — the 
utter  destruction  of  both.  He  procured  mutilated  and  false 
reports  from  the  one,  (as  I  have  proven  in  these  essays,)  and 
OATHS  from  the  other,  and  he  made  the  same  use  of  both:  and 
both  have  turned  out  to  be  as  false  as  vindictive.  And  yet, 
with  proof  piled  upon  proof,  and  demonstration  upon  demon- 
stration, there  are  found  men  who  continue  to  harp  upon  the 
worn-out  charge  that  'the  Bank  has  violated  its  charter.'  I 
would  commend  to  all  such,  a  daily  use  of  the  prayer — 

— "  That  gift  to  gie  us. 

To  see  ourselves  as  others  see  us." 

The  next  point  of  inquiry,  in  order,  by  the  Tyler  Commit- 
tee, is,  into  the  charge  made  by  President  Jackson,  and  in- 
stantly backed  by  his  retainers,  that  the  public  deposites  were 
not  safe  in  the  keeping  of  the  Bank.  I  have  adverted  to  this 
charge  in  a  previous  number,  and  would  pass  it  over  here, 
were  it  not  that  I  desire  to  introduce  a  few  figures,  for  the 
confirmation  of  the  wavering.  At  the  very  moment  when 
this  charge  was  made  to  resound  through  the  land,  it  is  proven 
that  the  liabilities  of  the  Bank  amounted  to  $60,059,909  85 ; 
and  that  to  meet  them  the  Bank  had  resources  amounting  to 
$67,931,511  36,  or  a  surplus  of  $7,871,601  51.  It  is  further 
shown  by  the  G)mmittee,  that  after  deducting  all  losses,  real 
and  probable,  the  Bank  had,  on  the  1st  November  last,  an 


104 

actual  surplus  of  Four  Millions,  Eight  Thousand,  Five  Hun- 
dred and  twenty  Dollars  and  sixty-six  cents. 

Well  does  the  Committee  remark,  after  making  this  exhi- 
bit, that  they  'might  well  take  leave  of  this  branch  of  the 
subject' — but  as  there  are  facts  of  high  import  bearing  on  this 
question,  the  Committee  give  them.  I  will  glance  at  them 
presently — first  premising,  that  when  this  branch  of  the  ma- 
chinery for  the  destruction  of  the  Bank  was  put  in  motion, 
not  doubting  its  results,  the  President,  in  anticipation,  came 
to  the  conclusion,  that  he  had  so  effectually  weakened  the 
institution,  as  to  justify  the  assertion,  that  the  Bank  was  not 
a  place  of  safe-keeping  for  the  public  deposites.  Like  the 
man  who  lays  a  train  to  fire  a  house,  and  runs  away,  saying 
that  the  house,  doubtless,  is  burned  down;  or,  like  he  who 
gives  the  stab  to  a  man,  or  administers  poison  to  him,  goes- off, 
and  asserts  that  'there  can  be  no  doubt  he  is  dead' — just  so 
with  President  Jackson,  after  he  and  his  .'instruments'  had 
set  in  motion  the  following  plan  for  the  Bank's  overthrow. 
"It  began  to  work  in  1832.  *From  the  fall  of  that  year,'  the 
committee  say,  'the  Bank  has  been  put  to  the  severest  triaV 
The  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  led  the  van  of  the  attack,  and 
in  his  report  of  the  5th  day  of  December,  1832,  questioned 
the  responsibility  of  the  Bank!  Congress  was  informed  that 
an  agent  was  appointed  to  inquire  into  the  security  of  the 
Bank;  an  examination  into  its  concerns  was  suggested;  the 
conduct  of  the  Bank  in  regard  to  the  three  per  cents  was  re- 
ferred to  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Representatives.  Out 
of  this  report,  (after  charging  the  Bank  with  having  made 
deceptive  reports,)  was  born  this  monster  of  an  assertion — 
'It  hence  appears  that  the  Bank  is  in  a  worse  condition,  by 
seven  and  a  half  millions,  than  it  was  in  March,  1832, 
when,  it  is  admitted  on  all  hands,  to  have  been  under  pres- 
sure.' 

Who  gave  birth  to  this  monstrous  design?  The  minority 
committee,  who,  says  the  Tyler  report,  "were  regarded  at 
the  time  as  holding  sentiments  somewhat  congenial  with 
those  of  the  Executive  department."  0  yes — and  if  angels 
from  Heaven  had  denied  the  truth  of  the  statement  and  its  in- 


105 

ference,  and  brought  down  wilh  them  truth,  lighted  up  with 
rays  from  the  source  of  truth,  they  would  have  been  by  ^the 
party,'  denounced  as  devils,  and  their  light,  absolute  dark- 
ness. 

This  minority  committee  felt  awkward  in  making  such  an 
assertion;  hence  they  must,  further  to  gull  the  people,  and 
furnish  material  for  their  presses,  and  party,  explain  the  rea- 
son why,  under  such  a  state  of  things,  there  was  so  little 
pressure  felt.  The  reason  was  given — and  what  does  the 
reader  think  it  was?  why, — "the  Bank  has  so  arranged  its  af- 
fairs, as  to  evade  making  payments  which  were  required  by 
the  government." 

But  this  was  not  enough:  these  blows  were  not  considered 
to  be  hard  enough.  Another  was  given  by  the  same  commit- 
tee: "the  condition  of  the  bank  is  no  more  favourable  than 
in  the  most  perilous  moment  of  its  existence."  But  this  was 
not  enough.  Then  comes  another — and  here  W2  have  a  world 
of  doubt,  whether  the  Bank  can  be  any  longer  trusted. 
**There  is  not  time  left,  says  the  Jackson  committee's  report, 
for  the  further  action  of  Congress,  with  a  view  to  a  more  per- 
fect information  at  the  present  session.  JXIT^Whether  exist- 
ing ybc^s,  (such  as  the  above)  are  sufficient  to  justify  THE 
EXECUTIVE  in  taking  any  step  against  the  Bank,  author- 
ised by  the  Charter,  is  a  matter  for  the  decision  of  the  proper 
officers,  acting  upon  their  own  views,  and  responsibility.  An 
opinion  by  Congress,  can  make  it  neither  more,  nor  less,  its 
duty  to  act." 

This  suggestion  contains  the  germ  of  that  notable  affair, 
which  resulted  in  the  removal  of  the  deposits.  Even  this 
committee  looked  only  to  an  action  by  '* the  proper  officers" 
— of  course  none  could  be  meant  other  than  such  as  the  laws 
had  designated.  But  when  the  act  was  consummated  by  an 
improper  officer,  viz: — President  Jackson,  over  the  head  of 
*the  proper  officer,'  and  with  his  feet  upon  his  neck,  for  he 
prostrated  Mr.  Duane,  to  get  at  the  Bank,  with  this  final 
blow,  these  same  men,  followed  by  the  army  of  office  hold- 
ers, and  expectants,  harked  on  by  the  presses  in  pay  of  the 

14 


106 

former,  shouted  *<well  done — it's  all   right,  down  with  the 
bank." 

But  President  Jackson  was  not  content  with  the  blows  that 
preceded  his  last  and  final  blow — so  it  was  secretly  continued 
anterior  to  that  last  blow,  to  make  a  concerted  run  upon  one 
of  the  Branches — that  at  Lexington,  being  supposed  to  be  the 
easiest  of  conquest,  was  selected;  all  these  brought  the  Presi- 
dent to  the  conclusion,  that  the  Bank  was  ruined,  and  hence 
he  asserted  the  deposites  were  not  safe.  But  before  they  were 
withdrawn,  that  assertion,  as  I  have  in  a  previous  number 
stated,  was  contradicted,  and  the  same  lips  pronounced  the 
Bank  to  be  too  strong  !  !  !  , 

The  Tyler  committee  question,  in  view  of  all  this,  "whe- 
ther any  other  monied  corporation  in  the  world,  could  have 
stood  up  against  trials  so  severe." 

And  for  what,  I  ask,  was  all  this  falsehood,  and  shuffling, 
and  violation  of  law  resorted  to?  Wherefore  should  men 
thus  combine,  and  plan  a  conspiracy  against  such  an  institu- 
tion as  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  proved  itself  to  be? 
Jn  revenge,  I  fearlessly  answer,  for  its  refusal  to  throw  itself 
into  the  arms  of  Jacksonism,  to  be  used  by  it  as  a  political 
tool  in  the  support  of  his  measures,  *right  or  wrong,'  and  in 
the  ulterior  hope  that  was  relied  on,  that  "the  party"  might 
employ  its  means  freely,  in  the  election  of  Andrew  Jackson's 
successor.  Here  is  the  secret.  Mr.  Duane  says  that  the  Ad- 
ministrative department  was  actuated,  in  all  its  measures 
against  the  Bank,  by  a  spirit  of  VINDICTIVENESS.  And 
who  doubts  it?  Who  is  there,  in  fact,  who  is  not  an  ig- 
noramus, that  does  not  know  this  to  be  true? 

These  measures  of  vindictive  hostility  having  been  con- 
summated by  the  final  blow  of  President  Jackson,  given  on 
his  own  responsibility,  and  for  which  in  any  other  country, 
and  among  any  other  people,  he  would  have  been  made  suit- 
ably to  atone,  and  the  work  of  "  pilfering,"  as  Mr.  Calhoun 
has  it,  and  of  destruction  being  done,  this  same  party,  know- 
ing that  great  distress  would  grow  out  of  this  rash  and  lawless 
course,  tacked  about,  and  occupied  one  of  the  strangest  and 
roost  contemptible  positions,  that  ever  disgraced  any  party,  in 


107 

this,  or  in  any  other  country.  From  this  position,  they  de- 
nied, might  and  main,  with  body  and  soul,  through  their 
press,  and  through  its  office-holders,  and  expectants,  that  there 
was  (0°ANY  "PRESSURE;"  and  in  the  same  breath  de- 
clared, "THE  BANK  CREATES  THE  PRESSURE." 

I  appeal  to  high  minded  and  honourable  men  of,  I  care  not 
what  party,  and  ask  if  ever  such  a  position  was  occupied  by 
men  pretending  to  be  honest,  before?  And  yet,  when  the 
leaders  shouted  'Hhere  is  no  pressure,"  it  is  panic;  so  shouted 
their  army  of  subsidized  followers;  and  when  they  shouted 
again  "The  Bank  creates  the  pressure,"  so  shouted  these  same 
followers.  The  very  echoes  of  this  contradictory  shouting 
mingled ! 

What  was  this  position  taken  for?  I  will  answer.  Those 
who  had  committed  the  rash  act,  knew  there  would  be 
pressure;  and  they  knew  there  2^>a*  pressure;  but  it  answered 
their  ends  to  deny  it.  When  proof  upon  proof,  when  twelve 
thousand  of  as  honourable  men  from  the  city  of  Philadelphia, 
as  ever  graced  a  city,  told  the  President  to  his  face,  there 
was  pressure;  and  when  the  cry  arose  from  all  parts  of  the 
country,  and  was  made  to  resound  in  the  Halls  of  Congress, 
and  over  the  land,  then,  answered  the  king  on  his  throne, 
and  then  shouted  his  followers,  "The  Bank  makes  it," 
"Go  to  Nick  Biddle." 

It  mortifies  one  to  show  human  nature  under  an  aspect  so 
revolting,  and  to  see  men  as  I  do  every  day  professing  attach- 
ment to  a  set  of  men  that  has  so  trifled  with  their  confidence, 
and  degraded  them.  Men  may  think  of  this  business  as  they 
please,  but  let  them  take  my  word  for  it,  there  is  no  coming 
in  contact  with  such  doings,  and  giving  them  support,  with- 
out contracting  some  of  their  bad  odour;  and  participating  in 
their  disgrace.  ARISTIDES. 


No.  2^.    . 
-Yes — **  Go  to  Nick  Biddle,"  was  the  insulting  re- 


ference of  President  Jackson,  to  the  free  citizens  of 'this 


A 


108 

Republic,  who,  goaded  by  the  pressure  inflicted  on  them  by 
his  own  hand,  sought,  from  that  same  hand,  the  relief  of 
which  they  stood  so  much  in  need.  Thousands  upon  thou- 
sands, as  the  world  knows,  through  the  mediums  of  petitions 
and  committees,  endeavoured  by  appeals  to  his  head  and  his 
heart,  to  quench  the  fire  of  his  wrath  against  the  Bank,  and 
thus  save  the  country  from  the  devastating  evils  which 
threatened  it. 

The  plan  had  been  laid.  These  evils  were  foreseen  by  the 
President's  prompters;  and  when  the  time  should  arrive 
when  they  would  be  felt,  it  was  arranged  for  the  President 
and  his  back'ers,  boldly  and  impudently  to  charge  them  to  the 
Bank.  Hence  the  courteous  and  gentlemanlike  reference, 
"GotoNickBiddle." 

It  is  among  the  strangest  of  all  the  strange  events  of  these 
strange  times,  that  a  people  professing  to  be  intelligent,  and 
to  have  some  discretion  and  will  of  their  own,  should  have 
permitted  the  charge,  that  the  Bank  caused  the  pressure,  to 
live  a  single  hour.     They  all  knew  that  there  was  nothing 
but  mutual  confidence  and  prosperity,  that  the  whole  country 
was  flourishing  from  one  extreme  to   the  other,  before  that 
confidence  was   prostrated,  and  that  prosperity  blighted,  by 
the  measures  of  the  President  preceding  and  accompanying 
the  act  of  removing  the  deposits — and  it  is  no  less  universally 
known,  that  a  pressure  began  and  advanced  with  these  mea- 
sures, and  that  it  was  consummated  by  the  last  and  final  blow 
which  took  from  the  bank  nine  millions  of  its  means;  and 
which,  of  course,  carried  with  it  the  proclamation,  that  as 
many  millions  would  be  required  by  the  Bank,  of  its  debtors, 
to  supply  the  place  of  those  removed.     No  sensible  man  could 
arrive  at  any  other  conclusion — of  course,  all  who  were  ca- 
pable of  reasoning  on  the  subject,  came  to  that  conclusion. 
The  efiect  of  this  was  to  weaken  and  destroy  that  confidence 
between  men,  without  which  fiscal  operations  cannot  be  sus- 
tained; and  to  lead  every  man  who  might  be  proximately,  or 
remotely,  indebted  to  the  Bank,  to  act  in  reference  to  a  de- 
mand upon  him. 

The  cabal  who  surrounded  the  President,  therefore,  pro- 


109 

vided  him  with  a  shield,  to  ward  from  himself  and  it,  the  ex- 
cited and  apprehended  vengeance  of  an  injured  aud  deeply 
wronged  people.  He  was  told  to  say  to  the  people,  that  the 
sufferings  they  endured  were  caused  by  the  Bank.  He  did 
so  tell  them,  and  then  to  make  good  his  own  belief  in  the 
truth  of  the  charge,  he  told  them  to  "  Go  to  Nick  Biddle," 
called  the  Bank  "  A  Monster,"  and  then  left  his  press  at 
Washington,  and  its  affiliated  tribe,  and  his  100,000  office- 
holders, to  make  the  people  believe  that  the  effects  produced 
by  his  own  measures  were  produced  by  the  Bank! 

The  Tyler  Committee  look  into  this  charge,  under  the  head 
of — "  What  has  been  the  conduct  of  the  Bank  since  1832,  in 
regard  to  the  extension  and  curtailment  of  its  loans  and  dis- 
counts?"— It  is  impossible  for  me  to  give  in  detail  this  mat- 
ter of  fact  division  of  the  Committee's  labours.  Never  were 
acts  of  any  institution  so  conclusively  proved  to  be  acts  of 
self-preservation,  as  were  those  of  the  Bank,  in  placing  itself 
in  an  attitude  to  meet  this  new  position  which  the  Executive 
of  the  United  States  had  taken  against  it;  nor  were  ever  any 
proofs  more  conclusive  of  the  studious  purposes  of  any  insti- 
tution to  avoid  taking  a  single  step  beyond  what  was  de- 
manded of  it  on  the  principle  of  self-preservation". 

The  reader  will  bear  in  mind  that  the  Executive  and  party 
hostility  to  the  Bank,  were  not  confined  to  a  removal  of  the 
public  deposites,  amounting  to  Nine  Millions  and  upwards, 
but  that  it  contemplated  the  annihilation  of  the  Bank.  Schemes 
were  concerted,  and  plans  laid,  to  make  runs  upon  its  branches; 
and  every  measure  was  adopted  that  could  be  made  to  weaken 
its  claims  to  public  confidence,  at  home  and  abroad.  Who,  I 
ask,  but  a  reckless  politician,  or  a  maniac,  would  expect  it  of 
the  Bank  to  continue  its  business,  under  such  circumstances, 
or  remain  idle,  and  adopt  no  measures  for  its  preservation? 

What  was  the  first  step  of  the  Bank,  in  front  of  such  an 
enemy  as  this? — On  the  13th  August,  1833,  it  decided: 

First,  That  the  discounts  of  the  Bank  and  the  Officers 
should  not  be  increased. 

Second,  That  domestrc  bills  purchased,  should  have  but  90 
days  to  run. 


110 

Third,  That  the  five  Western  officers  should  purchase 
ninety  days  bills  only,  on  the  Atlantic  cities,  except  when 
taken  in  payment  of  debt,  when  they  might  be  taken  at  any 
place  at  four  months.  These  orders  were  issued  on  the  12th 
October,  1833. 

To  the  five  Western  branches  the  President  of  the  Bank 
wrote  thus. — "  It  is  a  subject  of  regret  to  be  obliged  to  im- 
pose any  restraint  on  your  business,  especially  on  your  ope- 
rations in  exchange,  to  which  we  attach  particular  value.  The 
measure  will,  however,  I  trust,  be  only  temporary,  and  will 
not  be  continued  when  the  circumstances  which  render  it 
expedient  have  passed."  To  the  other  officers  it  was  said 
only: — "  These  resolutions  make,  as  you  perceive,  but  little 
change  in  your  present  arrangements  of  business,  and  whatever 
restrictions  they  contain,  will,  I  trust,  be  temporary,  and 
cease  with  the  causes  which  have  rendered  them  expedient  at 
present." 

Could  any  mode  have  been  adopted  in  such  a  crisis^  more 
tender,  or  more  lenient  to  the  dealers  of  the  Bank?  Who 
sees  in  this  any  thing  else  than  a  purpose  to  place  the  Bank 
in  a  state  of  safety,  against  the  marauding  array  of  merce- 
naries in  its  front,  who,  pirate-like,  had  hoisted  the  bloody 
flag?  or  any  thing  beyond  a  cautious  regard  for  the  welfare  of 
those  who  were  its  debtors? 

As  the  Executive  continued  to  press  on  the  Bank,  the  Bank 
continued  to  guard  itself — but  only  then.  This  is  proven  by 
the  action  of  the  Bank  having,  in  the  first  division  of  its 
movements,  called  in,  of  the  Nine  Millions  Eight  Hundred 
Sixty-eight  Thousand  and  odd  Dollars,  that  President  Jack- 
son had  orcfcered  to  be  removed  from  the  Bank,  only  ^^5,825,- 
906  74.  At  another  period,  S3, 320,000  were  called  in.  This 
was  under  directions  from  the  President  of  the  Bank,  in  these 

words: 

«•  The  present  situation  of  the  Bank,  and  the  new  measures  of 

hostility  which  are  understood  to  be  In  contemplation,  make  it  expedient 
to  place  the  institution  beyond  the  reach  of  all  danger;  for  this  purpose  I 
am  directed  to  instruct  your  office  to  conduct  its  business  on  the  foot- 
ing, &c." 

The  total  amount  curtailed  between   October,  1833,  and 


Ill 

January,  1834,  was  $9,145,905  74,  being  upwards  of  seven 
hundred  thousand  dollars  less  than  President  Jackson  had 
ordered  to  be  removed  from  the  Bank.  Meanwhile,  the  or- 
ders for  reduction  were  from  time  to  time  relaxed,  where  they 
bore  heavily  on  the  community. 

Having  placed  itself  in  a  secure  position,  on  the  27th  June, 
1834,  a  committee  of  seven  was  appointed  to  take  into  con- 
sideration the  present  state  of  the  Bank,  and  to  inquire  whe- 
ther any  further  measures  be  necessary,  in  consequence  of  the 
expected  adjournment  of  Congress,  without  taking  any  steps 
on  the  subject  of  the  removal  of  the  deposites.  A  resolution 
was  adopted,  revoking  all  orders  for  the  reduction  of  loans, 
and  authorising  the  officers  to  expand  their  loans,  and  purchase 
bills,  where  it  might  he  necessary  to  relieve  any  pressure 
on  the  commuuity. 

This  gave  rise  to  a  new  chime  among  the  assailants.  If  the 
Bank,  in  its  own  defence,  forced  by  executive  acts,  and  execu- 
tive threats  of  vengeance,  took  a  position  of  security,  it  was 
charged  with  causing  the  pressure.  Having  gained  that 
point,  and  feeling  for  the  condition  of  the  people,  and  Con- 
gress not  doing  any  thing,  it  gave  relief  where  it  could,  when 
up  started  the  whole  pack,  and  the  cry  was  of  exactly  an 
opposite  sort! 

Was  there  ever  such  a  profligate  set  of  men?  Does  history 
furnish  any  thing  like  a  parallel  to  their  acts?  And  yet  by 
their  impudence  and  patronage,  they  succeeded  in  imposing 
upon  a  deluded  people,  and  inducing  them,  even  at  the  cost  of 
their  own  degradation,  and  ultimate  sufferings,  to  sustain  all 
this  conduct,  together  with  the  President's  lawless  acts,  and 
his  utter  contempt  for  the  petitions  of  those  who  sought  to 
have  what  he  himself  had  made  wrong,  put  right. 

I  shall  glance  rapidly,  in  my  next,  over  the  remaining  points 
of  enquiry  by  the  Tyler  committee;  and  afterwards  give  a 
picture  of  the  relations  in  which  Gov.  Wolf,  and  Geo.  M. 
Dallas,  and  others  of  'the  party,'  stand  to  this  subject.  If 
men  will,  for  the  sake  of  office,  or  the  hope  of  office,  make 
^^instruments'''*  of  themselves,  and  in  that  capacity,  succeed  in 
deluding  the  people,  a  duty  arises,  and  should  be  recognized 


112 

and  respected  by  some  one,  to  expose  their  conduct.    That 
duty  I  have  assumed. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  26. 

With  the  next  question,  in  order,  proposed  and  examined 
by  the  Tyler  committee,  viz: — "  What  has  been  the  manage- 
ment of  the  Bank?"  I  have  but  little  to  do.  It  is  true,  "  the 
party"  assailed  it — and  made  itself  ridiculous  in  all  intelligent 
eyes,  by  its  efforts  upon  a  point  which  was  known  to  be  in- 
vulnerable— and  especially  as  every  blow  struck  the  assailants 
in  their  own  faces.  The '*  management"  of  the  Bank,  whe- 
ther for  good  or  for  evil,  could aSect  only  three  parties— - 

First — The  Government. 

Second — The  public,  generally. 

Third— Itself. 

I  have  shown  in  a  previous  number,  how  it  affected  the  Go- 
vernment. I  beg  to  repeat  the  testimony  here.  It  is  true, 
like  all  other  testimony  from  the  same  quarter,  it  will  be 
deemed  good  by  "  the  party,"  only  whilst  it  served  "  the 
party;"  but  when  it  stands  opposed  to  "the  party,"  it  will, 
in  their  eyes,  be  no  testimony  at  all.  Honest  men  will  not 
fail,  however,  to  give  it  due  weight.  Here  it  is.  Mr.  Rush, 
on  the  13th  of  December,  1-828,  then  Secretary  of  the  Trea- 
sury, says  of  the  Bank,  as  agent  of  the  Treasury  for  paying 
off  the  public  debt — "  In  this  manner,  heavy  payments  of  the 
debt  are,  in  effect,  made  gradually,  instead  of  the  whole  mass 
being  thrown  at  once  upon  the  money  market,  which  might 
produce  injurious  shocks.  So  prudently  in  this,  and  in  other 
respects,  does  the  Bank  aid  in  the  operation  of  paying  off  the 
debt,  that  the  community  hardly  has  a  consciousness  that  it 
is  going  on." 

It  is  true,  this  just  tribute  was  paid  before  Jacksonism  pre- 
vailed— and  may  be  considered,  especially  since  Mr.  Rush  is 
known  to  occupy  other  ground  now,  as  the  testimony  of  an- 
other administration — as  a  mere  Adams  trick — a  sort  of  trap 


113 

to  catch  Bank  gudgeons.  Well,  then,  let  us  see  what  Mr. 
Ingham  says.  He  was  Jackson,  up  to  the  hub.  He  swamia 
Jacksonism — his  feet  found  no  resting  place  until  a  bough 
from  the  hickory  tree  was  protruded  for  him  to  repose  upon. 
Being  there,  hear  him.     He  writes  in  July,  1829,  thus: — 

"  I  take  the  occasion  to  express  the  great  satisfaction  of  the  Treasury 

Department,  at  the  manner  in  which  the  President  (that  same  'Nick  Bid- 
die')  and  Directors  of  the  parent  Bank  have  discharged  their  trusts,  in 
03*  ALL  their  immediate  relations  to  the  Government.  So  far  as  their 
transactions  have  come  under  my  notice,  and  especially  in  the  facilities 
afforded  in  transferring  the  funds  of  the  Government,  and  in  the  prepara- 
tion for  the  heavy  payment  of  the  public  debt  on  the  first  inst.,  which  has 
been  effected  by  the  prudent  management  of  your  board,  at  a  time  of  severe 
depression  on  all  the  productive  employments  of  the  country,  without  causing 
any  sensible  addition  to  the  pressure,  or  even  visible  effect  upon  the  ordi- 
nary operations  of  the  State  Banks."  • 

An  honest  man  would  think  this  was  a  faithful  Bank,  and 
a  very  useful  Bank.  But  it  had  not  yet  been  felt  by  **  the 
party"  on  the  question  of  becoming  its  tool.  Next  comes  the 
testimony  of  President  Jackson  himself.  This,  we  all  know, 
now,  is  esteemed  to  be  good,  or  applicable,  only  so  long  as 
it  may  suit  his  purposes,  and  the  plans  of  his  party.  He  is 
for  a  man  to-day,  and  against  him  to-morrow;  advocates  a 
measure  at  one  time,  and  condemns  it  at  another.  He  came 
into  power  for  one  term,  and  so  announced  it,  as  did  his  be- 
loved friend  and  co-worker,  Amos  Kendall:  then  he  goes  for 
two.  He  is  shocked  at  the  bare  suspicion  of  the  Federal 
officers  interfering  with  State  elections,  and  now  requires  it 
of  his  army  of  office-holders  to  bring  all  their  influence  to  bear 
upon  them,  and  actually  comes  out  at  last  under  his  own 
hand,  to  hector  and  bully  those  who  may  dare  to  stand  in  the 
way  of  the  election  of  his  chosen  successor.  I  know  very 
well  the  testimony  of  such  a  witness  in  behalf  of  the  Bank, 
may  well  be  considered  as  worthless — but  hear  him — in  1829 
— hear  him: — 

"  It  was  apprehended  that  the  withdrawal  of  so  large  a  sum  from  the 
banks  in  which  it  was  deposited,  at  a  time  of  universal  pressure  in  the 
money  market,  might  cause  much  injury  to  the  interests  dependent  on 
bank  accommodations.     But  this  evil  was  wholly  averted  by  an  early  anti- 

15 


114 

cipation  of  it,  at  the  Treasury,  dj*  aided  by  the  judicunu  arrangement  of 
the  officers  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States." 

I  leave  it  for  the  report  of  the  Tyler  committee  to  solve 
the  doubts  (if  there  be  any)  touching  the  "  management  of 
the  Bank,"  under  the  two  remaining  heads,  viz:  towards  the 
public  and  itself. 

"The  summary  of  all  which  is,"  says  the  committe,  "that 
the  Bank,  in  the  last  eleven  years,  has  overcome  all  diiEcuities 
which  stood  in  its  way,  has  given  to  its  notes  a  universal 
circulation,  redeemable  w^heresoever  presented;  has  increased 
the  circulation  from  four  to  twenty  millions,  has  (Q^  puri- 
fied the  general  currency,  and  has  doubled  the  profits  of  the 
Bank  itself."  There  need  not  be  another  word  added  to  this 
testimony. 

It  was  after  this  that  "  the  party"  sought  to  secure  the 
Bank  as  one  of  its  "  instruments."  The  Bank  nobly  spurned 
the  attempt  upon  its  honourr  Then  devices  were  formed  to 
destroy  it;  and  then  were  causes  hunted  after  to  justify  the 
crusade  which  it  was  resolved  to  set  on  foot  for  its  overthrow. 
The  postponement  of  the  period  for  the  redemption  of  the 
three  per  cents,  was  seized  upon,  as  was  the  expansion  of  its 
operations  in  1831;  and  then  in  drder,  all  the  rest  that  I  have 
named,  including  the  notable  duties  assigned  to  Messrs.  Gil- 
pin, Sullivan,  and  Wager;  and  those  other  duties  undertaken 
by  the  Thomas  committee,  &c. 

Among  the  charges  against  the  Bank,  was  that  of  establish- 
ing its  branches  in  the  States.  At  this  point  a  hue  and  cry 
was  raised.  The  hair  of  every  "  instrument"  was  made  to 
bristle  with  fear,  and  every  such  tongue  was  loud  in  its  ana- 
themas against  the  Bank,  for  thus  daring  to  interfere  with  the 
"  rights  of  the  States."  The  land  resounded  with  the  cry, 
"the  Bank  is  extending  its  influence — stop  it — stop  it." 

Well,  the  Tyler  committee  look  into  this  business,  and 
what  do  they  find?  Why,  reader,  that  the  leaders  of  this  very 
cry  were  the  petitioners  to  have  branches  sent  among  the 
States,  and  into  the  territories  named  by  them.  They  find 
the  Bank  was  not  "  intrusive,"  and  very  conclusively  say, 

"It  is  difficult  to  conceive  how  it  could   in  any   way  enlarge   the 


115 

sphere  of  its  influence  by  locating  a  branch  where  neither  the  wants  of 
commercial  men,  or  of  any  other  class,  required  increased  banking  facilities. 
The  want  of  borrowers  would  seem  to  be  as  fatal  to  the  spread  of  its  influ- 
ence, as  the  want  of  money  to  lend." 

Every  body  knew  this;  and  even  "the  party"  who  chose 
to  assail  the  Bank  on  this  ground,  knew  it. 

But  the  foul  purpose  is  disclosed  by  the  proof  that  those 
who  thus  waylay  the  Bank,  were  the  very  men  who  invited 
it  to  come  among  them! 

Eight  original  branches  have  been  established  within  the 
last  sixteen  years,  viz:  at  NASHVILLE,  Natchez,  St.  Louis, 
Mobile,  Portland,  Burlington,  Utica,  and  Buffalo. 

The  people  of  Nashville  began  so  long  ago  as  1817,  to  eai- 
nestly  solicit  a  branch.  First,  by  a  petition  signed  by  FELIX 
GRUNDY,  and  others.  -Grundy  was  very  importunate — he 
wrote  often  and.  pressingly — meetings  of  the  citizens  were 
called — a  committee  was  appointed  to  urge  upon  the  Bank 
to  send  them  a  branch.  There  were  "  only  six  persons  who 
refused  to  sign"  the  petition  for  a  branch.  George  W.  Camp- 
bell urged  it;  so  did  John  Bell,  late  Speaker  of  the  House  of 
Representatives;  and  so,  reader,  did  QC?  ANDREW  JACK- 
SON! The  Bank  declined,  notwithstanding,  for  several  years, 
and  at  last  sent  them  a.  branch,  but  not  until  the  Legislature 
virtually  asked  for  it. 

The  Natchez  branch  was  sent  on  invitation  of  the  Legisla- 
ture. 

That  at  St.  Louis,  upon  the  application,  of  the  citizens  of 
that  town,  aided  by  a  letter  from  Mr.  RUSH,  in  reply,  say 
the  committee,  to  a  letter  from  Mr.  BENTON,  (not  Jesse, 
but  Thomas,  the  Senator,)  and  transmitted  by  Mr.  BENTON 
to  the  President  of  the  Bank. 

The  branch  at  Natchez  was  twice  urged  upon  the  Bank  by 
Mr.  RUSH,  who  also  urged  the  establishment  of  another  at 
Detroit;  but  the  Bank,  believing  Buffalo  to  be  a  better  place, 
and  seconded  in  this  by  C.  C.  CAMBRELENG,  who  took  a 
thousand  dollars  fee  for  looking  into  the  superior  fitness  of 
Buffalo  over  Detroit,  and  reporting  upon  it. 


116 

The  Mobile  and  Portland  branches  were  also  called  for, 
says  the  committee,  by  letters  from  the  Treasury  Department. 

Of  the  eight  branches  established  within  sixteen  years,  says 
the  committee,  only  two,  those  at  Burlington  and  Utica,  were 
established  by  the  Bank. 

But,  as  the  committee  very  conclusively  remark,  "  if  the 
Bank  had  sought,  by  multiplying  its  offices,  to  exert  a  con- 
trolling influence  over  public  sentiment,  it  would  have  been 
furnished  a  fair  apology  in  the  numerous  applications  address- 
ed to  it  from  every  quarter,  to  have  multiplied  them  almost 
ad  infinitum.  Those  applications  have  been  sustained  by 
men  of  the  most  exalted  character."  Among  the  names  ap- 
plying for  a  branch  at  Lynchburg,  (Va.)  Mr.  Jefferson's  is 
one.  Among  those  for  a  branch  at  Fredericksburg,  (Va.)  are 
Judge  P.  P.  Barbour,  Mr.  Madison,  James  Barbour,  Hugh 
Nelson,  and  James  Pleasants.  Among  the -names  applying 
for  a  branch  at  Pensacola,  is  found  DIT  ANDREW  JACK- 
SON'S. Among  those  asking  for  a  branch  at  Albany,  is 
(0°  MARTIN  VAN  BUREN'S,  the  same  personage  who 
fills  the  office  of  Vice  President  of  the  United  States,  and  has 
been  chosen  by  President  Jackson  as  his  successor;  and  who 
has,  for  wily,  and  fox-like  reasons,  proclaimed — "  Uncom- 
promisins^  hostility  to  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.'^ 

Many  reasons  operate  to  make  me  wish  that  Mr.  Rush  oc- 
cupied the  ground  now,  he  oceupied  in  1828.  I  contemplate 
his  present  position,  and  his  relation  to  his  new  associates, 
with  pain!  He  was  never  born  to  occupy  the  one,  or  to  har- 
monize with  the  other. 

I  will  not  follow  up  the  rejections  by  the  Bank,  of  applica- 
tions for  branches,  but  will  merely  add,  that  sixty-three  ap- 
plications were  rejected,  though,  as  the  Tyler  committee  say, 
"  pressed  upon  by  the  memorials  and  petitions  of  most  re- 
spectable citizens  of  the  several  places  from  whence  the  ap- 
plications proceeded." 

Now,  then,  let  the  candid  reader  ask  himself,  what  sort  of 
judgment  an  insulted  people  ought  to  award  those  political 
instruments?  Can  they  be  regarded  as  entitled  to  confidence? 
Are  such  men,  in  party  political  matters,  to  be  trusted?    And 


117 

above  all  things,  should  not  an  institution  that  has  been 
crushed  by  the  weight  of  calumny  alone,  find  in  every  honest 
heart,  a  friend? 

I  meant  only  to  make  a  summary  of  what  remained  of  the 
committee's  report,  but  found  I  could  not  do  the  reader  jus- 
tice by  any  such  analysis.  I  shall  come  to  a  close  soon.  I  am 
in  quest  of  nothing  but  truth;  nor  do  I  seek  for  any  thing  be- 
yond such  an  enlightening  of  public  opinion,  as  may  enable 
it  to  exercise  itself  upon  a  great  question,  according  to  truth 
and  justice. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  27. 

Who  is  there  that  has  not  heard  the  denunciations  of  "the 
party"  against  the  Bank  on  account  of  the  course  it  has  pur- 
sued in  relation  to  the  French  Bill?  Over  what  part  of  this 
Union  has  any  man  travelled,  without  coming  in  contact  with 
President  Jackson's  delectable  organ,  the  Globe,  and  its  ser- 
vile copyists,  pouring  forth  their  poisonous  streams  of  abuse 
and  detraction,  and  diffusing  their  tainted  matter  every  where, 
in  the  hope  (alas !  that  hope  has  been  too  fatally  realized)  of 
innoculating  people  with  that  vengeance  against  the  Bank 
which  their  employers  had  wreaked  upon  it?  The  French 
Bill !  Does  the  reader  know  what  sort  of  transaction  this 
was?  Has  he  informed  himself?  If  he  have,  then  if  he  be  ho- 
nest, he  can  feel  nothing  but  loathing  for  a  set  of  men  who 
would  implicate  the  Bank  for  its  action  on  the  case. 

For  the  information  of  such  as  may  not  have  had  access  to 
the  documents,  I  will  copy  the  summary  made  by  the  Tyler 
Committee  of  the  history  of  the  Bill.     The  Committee  say: 

"  The  simple  state  of  the  case  is  as  follows.     The  Government  has 

a  Bill  of  Exchange  on  Paris  for  sale.  In  consequence  of  the  magnitude 
of  the  sum,  it  would,  in  order  to  meet  witli  a  purchaser  in  the  person  of 
a  private  individual,  have  had  to  be  divided  into  several  sums.  This  would 
have  been  attended  with  delay,  which  the  Government  sought  to  avoid, 
and  probably  with  loss,  by  effecting  a  reduction  in  the  price  of  Exchange. 
The  offer  of  the  bill,  under  these  circumstances,  is  made  to  the  Bank,  ftnd 


lis 

the  Bill  is  FI7BCRASBI)  by  the  Bank.  It  is  duly  presented,  and  protested 
for  non-payment,  and  the  purchaser  demands  the  usual  damages  arising 
under  the  protest.  The  Attorney  General,  (Taney)  expresses  the  opinion 
that  the  purchaser  has  no  title  to  damages,  and  says  he  will  gire  his  rea- 
sons at  another  time.  He  is  asked  the  reasons  for  his  opinion,  at  another 
time,  by  the  party  most  interested  in  knowing  them,  and  he  declines  giv- 
ing them!  The  Bank  urges  the  claim  upon  the  Treasury,  which  is  ulti- 
mately decided  against  it;  and  having  no  recourse  against  the  Government 
by  suit,  retains  an  amount,  arising  out  of  the  dividends  of  the  Government, 
one  of  the  stockholders,  equal  to  the  damages.  The  President  of  the 
Bank  addresses  a  letter  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  advising  him  of 
this,  and  stating  the  object  to  be  to  carry  the  question  before  the  Courts, 
and  expressing  his  readiness  to  adopt  any  other  course  of  proceeding  upon 
the  subject  which  would  be  more  agreeable  to  the  Government,  which  is 
altogether  declined  by  the  Government.  These,"  say  the  Committee, 
*'are  the  facts  in  the  case." 

I  will  not  occupy  the  reader's  time  by  giving  the  reasons 
of  the  Committee  justifying  the  Bank  in  the  course  it  adopted. 
None  but  a  man  devoid  of  common  sense  would  require  rea- 
sons to  satisfy  him  upon  a  case  so  self-evident ;  and  none  go- 
verned by  a  feeling  of  common  honesty  would  deny  to  the 
Bank  the  right  to  the  damages  claimed  by  it.  But  some  who 
have  common  sense  and  pommon  honesty,  may,  possibly,  doubt 
the  right  of  the  Bank  to  retain  the  damages.  The  Commit- 
tee may  enlighten  such : 

«» The  doctrine  of  retainer,"  says  the  Committee,  "well  understood  by 
the  Courts,  applies  as  well  to  a  corporation  as  to  an  individual;  and  when 
that  retainer  is  avowedly  made  in  order  to  procure  a  submission  to  the 
Courts  and  Juries  of  the  country,  and  would  have  been  waived,  as  is  plainly 
intimated  in  Mr.  Biddle's  letter  to  Mr.  Woodbury,  if  the  submission  could 
in  any  other  way  be  secured,  your  Committee  are  unable  to  see  why  there 
should  be  either  clamor  or  objection  raised  to  the  course  pursued  by  the 
directors." 

Let  this  suffice.  There  is  one  other  reference,  by  the 
Committee,  to  this  case,  which  I  cannot  omit  introducing.  It 
ought  to  cover  with  shame  those  conspirators  against  the 
Bank,  and  awaken  in  every  honest  bosom  a  feeling  of  con- 
tempt for  them.  I  commend  to  the  reader's  attention  the 
following  quotations  from  the  same  report : 

"  The  Government  has  often  purchased  Bills  of  Exchange  on  fo- 

reigfn  countries,  and  the  Committee  is  ignorant  of  a  single  case  of  protest 
in  which  it  has  ever  remitted  the  damages!" 


119 

The  Committee  then  cite  the  case  of  Stephen  Girard,  one 
of  the  largest  stockholders  of  this  very  Bank.  The  Govern- 
ment bought  a  bill  of  him.  It  was  protested.  Damages  were 
demanded.  Mr.  Girard  remonstrated.  The  Government 
was  inflexible.  The  damages  were  paid.  The  same  Bank, 
of  which  this  same  Girard  is  a  large  stockholder,  buys,  in  its 
turn,  a  bill  of  the  Government.  It  is  protested.  Damages 
are  charged — when,  lo!  in  the  plenitude  of  its  justice,  the 
Government  refuses  to  pay  them ! !  The  reasons  are  asked 
for  this  refusal.  Mr.  Taney,  General  Jackson's  tool  for  re- 
moving the  Deposites,  promises  to  give  them — but  after  cast- 
ing well  about  him,  well  disposeld  as  he  was  to  serve  his  em- 
ployer, declines  giving  them.  Resort  is  proposed,  by  the  Bank, 
to  the  Courts,  as  the  final  arbiter  in  the  case.  Does  the  Go- 
vernment accept  the  proposition?  No.  Wherefore  1  For  the 
same  reason,  I  take  the  liberty  of  answering,  that  Andrew 
Jackson  declined  to  sue  out  a  Scire  Facias  on  the  charge 
made  by  himself  and  his  "  instruments,"  that  the  Bank  had 
violated  its  charter.  There  were  no  grounds  upon  which 
to  rest  the  charge.  In  this  way  are  reluctant,  though  indirect 
CONFESSIONS  EXTORTED  from  those  assailants  of  the  Bank, 
that  their  clamor  and  abuse  are  employed  for  other  purposes 
than  those  they  proclaim.  And  yet,  with  a  conduct  so  pal- 
pably degraded,  and  a  course  of  proceeding  so  spotted  with 
infamy,  these  men  have  the  hardihood  to  present  themselves 
before  the  American  people,  and  to  ask  their  support,  their 
confidence,  and  their  respect  ! ! ! 

Now  for  another  movement  by  this  crusade  army  of  the 
Executive,  against  the  Bank.  The  throats  of  the  office  hold- 
ers, upon  this  tack,  were  strained  almost  to  splitting; — the 
press  fulminated  clouds  of  the  most  appalling  aspect.  The 
very  welkin  was  made  to  ring  with  the  shouts,  and  to  wear, 
by  the  fumes  of  "the  pafEy,"  a  lurid  hue ! — What's  the  mat- 
ter? the  unconscious  stranger  asked — And  why  is  all  this  cla- 
mor? inquired  the  unsuspecting  farmer,  and  the  busy  mechanic 
who  had  not  watched  the  movements  of  these  Bank  pirates. 
The  answer  was  given  in  a  tone  of  thunder — 

"THE  BANK  IS  INTERMEDDLING  IN  POLITICS!" 


120 

"  Down  with  it  !"  was  shouted  from  those  same  mouths. 
"  Down  with  the  monster  !"  exclaimed  Andrew  Jackson. 
"  Uncompromising  hostility  to  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States !"  screamed  httle  Van  Buren. 

"  The  Bank  is  intermeddling  in  Politics !"  came  back  in 
echoes ;  and  anon  the  charge  rose  again,  and  rolled  over  the 
land  like  waves  over  the  bed  of  the  ocean. 

The  Tyler  Committee  look  into  this  clamor,  and  the  causes 
of  it.  They  analyze  it,  and  state  that  "  the  way  in  which 
such  power  and  influence  would  be  most  likely  to  display 
itself,"  would  be — 

1st.  In  the  appointment  of  Directors  for  the  several  branches, 
with  reference  chiefly  to  their  political  sentiments. 

2.  In  an  injurious  discrimination  between  persons :  granting 
accommodations  to  some,  and  refusing  them  to  others,  on  party 
political  grounds. 

3.  In  the  granting  of  large  and  unusual  loans,  on  insufficient 
or  doubtful  security,  to  persons  supposed  to  have  political  in- 
fluence ;  and  extending  indulgencies  to  such,  not  extended  to 
others. 

4.  In  efibrts  of  direct  bribery,  by  the  donation  of  its  money. 

5.  In  rendering  the  press  its  stipendiary,  by  bestowing  gra- 
tuities on  editors,  or  making  to  them  extravagant  loans. 

6.  In  large  and  unusual  loans,  and  accommodations  to  mem- 
bers of  Congress,  and  other  public  functionaries,  on  insufficient 
security. 

7.  In  paying  for  publications  not  necessary  for  a  true  expo- 
sition of  its  condition,  or  to  defend  itself  against  injurious 
charges. 

On  the  first  of  these  heads,  the  Committee  say,  they  "have 
no  reason  to  believe  that  any  other  motives  have  operated 
with  the  Bank,  than  those  having  reference,  mainly,  to  the 
interests  of  the  institution.  The  object  seems  to  have  been, 
to  place  at  the  board  of  directors,  men  of  character  and  stand- 
ing, acquainted  with  the  circumstances  of  the  citizens  com- 
posing the  community  in  the  midst  of  which  the  office  was 
situated,  and  of  business  habits,"  &c.     Let  this  suffice. 

How  keenly  must  "the  government  directors"  have  felt  the 


121 

rebuke  arising  out  of  the  following  quotation  from  this  report. 
(It  refers  to  the  selection  of  directors  friendly  to  the  Bank.) — 

"It  would  be  strange,"  say  the  Committee,   "if  this  were  not  soj 

for  to  commit  its  [the  Bank's]  management  to  the  hands  of  those  who 
were  opposed  to  it,  and  QCj"  sought  its  destruction,  would  be  an  act  of 
madness  and  folly,  for  which  it  could  have  neither  excuse  nor  apology. 
No  man  of  lofty  or  correct  feelings,  would  assume  a  guardianship,  when  he 
found  in  his  breast,  upon  self-examination,  none  other  than  a  feeling  of 
hostility  to  the  object  placed  under  his  control,  and  a  desire  to  desthox, 
in  place  of  a  wish  to  sustain,  and  uphold." 

If  any  man  has  a  vision  keen  enough  to  detect  in  General 
Jackson's  "devised  instruments^  though  acting  as  directors  of 
the  Bank,  any  other  purpose  than  to  "  destroy"  it,  he  sees 
quicker,  and  truer,  than  i»  usually  given  to  mortals  to  see. 

Under  the  second  head,  the  Committee  say: 

"  We  have  carefully  examined  the  discount  books  of  the  Bank,  and  the 
several  branches  which  it  visited,  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the  course 
pursued  towards  those  who  are  knowit  to  be  hostile  to  the  Bank.  The 
result  of  that  examination  is,  that  many  who  are  known  to  be  hostile  to  it; 
OCj'  publicly  and  privately,  who  have  co-operated  in  measures  to  destbot 
IT — who,  in  short,  are  its  most  uncompromising  opponents,  are  among 
those  who,  at  some  period  or  another,  have  received  accommodations  at 
the  Bank,  or  some  one  of  its  branches.  This  remark  embraces  men  in  pub- 
lic and  private  life;  in  the  EXECUTIVE,  as  well  as  LEGISLATIVE  de- 
partments; in  high,  as  well  as  in  subordinate  offices." 

Let  this  suffice.  But  let  not  the  reader  peruse  this  decided 
testimony,  demonstrating  the  Bank's  entire  political  imparti- 
ality, without  holding  those  traducers,  who  may  have  seduced 
him  into  a  belief  that  this  charge  against  the  Bank  was  true, 
responsible  for  the  deception.  And  let  him  bear  in  mind,  how 
widely  such  a  liberal  and  just  policy  differs  from  that  pro- 
scriptive  policy,  which,  at  the  same  time,  distinguishes  and 
disgraces  the  very  party  that  has  the  impudence  thus  falsely 
to  implicate  the  Bank  in  the  charge  of  political  partiality. 
Guilty  itself — it  would  involve  the  Bank  in  the  same  disgrace ! 
How  common  is  this  practice  among  the  profligate.  Debased 
by  their  own  acts,  they  make  it  a  business  to  seek  to  involve 
others  in  a  similar  disgrace.  Jacksonism  made  a  political  in- 
strument of  the  government,  and  conscious  that  all  honest 
men  would  hold  such  conduct  in  contempt,  it  became  part  of 

16 


122 

its  duty  to  implicate  the  Bank  in  like  conduct ;  and  thus  les- 
sen the  weight  of  that  load  of  infamy  upon  itself  which  it  was 
foreseen  must,  sooner  or  later,  become  too  intolerable  to  be 
borne. 

I  shall  remark  upon  the  remaining  heads  in  my  next. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  28. 

I  proceed  with  the  remainffig  points,  as  enumerated  in  No. 
27.  The  next  in  order  is — "  Unusual  loans,  on.  insufficient 
security,  or  unusual  indulgencies  fo  persons  supposed  ^o  pos- 
sess enlarged  political  influence." 

I  will  give  the  answer  of  the  Committee  on  this  question, 
so  far  as  it  embraces  it,  entire.  I  do  this  because  it  is  short, 
and  because  it  sweeps  away  thousands  of  the  most  inveterate 
falsehoods  which  "the  party"  extracted  from  this  very  ques- 
tion, and  fastened,  like  so  many  blister-plasters,  upon  the 
public  credulity.     Hear  the  Committee : 

■"  The  Committee  has  discovered  nothing  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
Bank  to  induce  a  belief  that  it  has  adopted  ant  policy  of  the  kind.  Each 
borrower  is  held  to  comply  with  the  rules  of  the  Bank.  When  these  rules 
are  violated,  the  violation  is  followed  by  a  protest,  or  such  other  proceed- 
ings as  are  usually  adopted  in  other  cases.  In  some  instances,  where  the 
borrower  has  failed  to  renew  his  note  at  the  proper  time,  either  from  inad- 
vertence, or  from  circumstances  beyond  his  control;  or  has  neglected  to 
pay  the  discount  upon  each  renewal;  or  has  changed  his  endorser,  by  sub- 
stituting one  name  for  another,  equally  good;  or  has  drawn  a  draft  on  one 
who  declines  accepting  it,  and  offers  another  already  accepted  by  a  person, 
or  persons,  entirely  responsible,  the  Bank  may  have  failed  to  have  the  note 
protested.  In  such  cases,  to  protest,  would  be  but  a  useless  proceeding, 
injurious  to  the  individual,  and  without  benefit  to  the  Bank.  It  (the  Bank) 
seeks  to  secure  its  debt,  and  if  that  be  done  satisfactorily,  all  is  accom- 
plished which  it  could  desire. 

"The  Committee  are  not  aware  of  a  loan  to  ant  one  possessed  of  an 
enlarged  political  influence,  of  an  unusual  amount,  or,  in  fact,  of  awt 
amount  resting  on  insufficient  security,"  &c. 

Now  let  such  as  may  have  permitted  themselves  to  be 
drugged  with  the  slanders  of  the  official  organ  of  President 


123 

Jackson,  the  Globe,  at  Washington,  whose  slang  is  continued 
to  this  hour,  reflect  a  moment,  and  compare  those  swarms  of 
wicked  and  malicious  falsehoods  which  were  made  to  infest 
the  land,  as  did  the  frogs,  and  locusts,  and  disgusting  vermin 
of  Egypt,  with  this  flat  and  unqualified  declaration  of  the 
Committee ;  and  then  ask,  if  such  reckless  propagators  of  ca- 
lumny— such  foul  conspirators  against  the  Bank,  its  officers, 
and  the  currency,  ought  not  t«  be  held  up  to  the  indignant 
rebuke  of  all  honest  men,  and  to  the  execration  and  contempt 
of  the  world.  It  would  seem  from  the  complacency  with 
which  President  Jackson  contemplates  the  calumnies  of  the 
Globe,  and  its  aids,  that  he  delights  in  breathing  the  atmos- 
phere filled  with  such  a  moral  pestilence,  and,  unlike  the 
Pharaoh  of  Egypt,  he  cultivates  the  closest  familiarity  with 
those  frogs,  and  locusts,  and  disgusting  political  vermin.  How 
humiliating  is  such  an  exposition  ! 

The  fourth  head  of  the  inquiry,  viz : — "  Efibrts  of  direct 
bribery,  by  donations  of  its  (the  Bank's)  money." 

Let  it  be  borne  in  mind,  that  President  Jackson  himself 
made  this  charge,  direct.  It  originated  in  his  own  heart,  and 
came,  full  formed,  out  of  his  own  mouth.  It  was  seconded 
and  sustained,  of  course,  by  his  sycophants  and  followers, 
just  as  was  his  declaration  when  Lawrence  spapped  his  pis- 
tols at  him,  that  '*it  is  that  damn'd  rascal,  Poindexter."  He 
said  this,  and  that  was  enough.  His  "instruments"  were  im- 
mediately in  motion  to  prove  it.  The  conspiracy  exploded, 
and  master  and  men,  all  alike  stand  transfixed  by  the  spear 
of  truth,  and  the  lie  being  given  to  their  assertions,  by  a  com- 
mittee of  the  Senate,  and  to  their  oaths — they  cry  out  against 
their  own  witnesses,  procured  by  themselves,  {Q=°  '•  PER- 
JURED VILLAINS."    What  a  spectacle ! ! 

Just  so  with  this  charge  of  bribery  against  the  Bank.  Pre- 
sident Jackson  announced  it,  and  intimated  that,  but  for  his 
special  purity,  the  Bank  would  have  bribed  him  too !  He 
had  not  a  doubt  but  it  had  bribed  Congress — Oh,  no — and 
whenever  a  member,  a  little  more  honest  than  some  of  the 
Jackson  members  have  proved  themselves  to  be,  would  give 
a  vote  according  to  his  oath,  and  his  conscience,  (things  get- 


124 

ting  now  most  fearfully  out  of  vogue,)  out  comes  the  Globe 
with  a  pretty  strong  implication  that  it  was  "bribery" — "the 
Bank"— "the  Monster !" 

Now  what  says  the  Committee  1     Hear  it — 

Q^j"  "NO  CASE  of  this  sort  is  known  to  the  Committee;  no  such  case 
appears  (of  coarse  where  such  would  appear)  on  the  books  of  the  bank." 

But  this  was  not  enough.  For  it  had  been  already,  by 
Whitney,  charged  against  the  Bank,  touching  other  matters, 
that  it  paid  out  its  money  without  making  any  entries  at  all. 
Well,  the  committee  summon  before  them  the  two  Govern- 
ment Directors,  Messrs.  Macalister  and  Ingraham,  and  put 
the  question — "Could  any  moiitey  go  out  of  the  Bank  without 
the  same  appearing  on  the  books?" 

Answer — "  We  do  not  think  it  could." 

Now  what  becomes  of  President  Jackson's  favourite  and 
cherished  charge  against  the  Bank  of  "  bribery  ?"  Where 
shall  honest  men  go  to  find  even  the  atoms  of  this  broken  up 
and  scattered  calumny  ?  No  where  within  the  range  of  truth, 
or  justice,  or  honour,  I  answer ;  but  even  to  this  hour,  the 
whole  may  be  found,  in  an  embodied  form,  in  President  Jack- 
son's keeping,  alongside  the  Poindexter  affidavits;  and  in  the 
Globe,  and  in  its  affiliated  presses — aye,  and  perhaps  it  even 
yet  lingers  in  the  minds  of  those,  to  delude  whom  the  scan- 
dalous falsehood  was  invented. 

The  5th — "In  rendering  the  press  its  (the  Bank's)  stipen- 
diary, by  bestowing  gratuitous  rewards  on  editors,  or  making 
to  them  extravagant  loans." 

"  The  Committee  know  of  no  case  of  gratuity  to  any." 

The  Committee  go  over  the  old  grounds  of  the  Jesper  Hard- 
ing, and  the  Webb  and  Noah  loans,  and  the  loans  to  Gales 
and  Seaton.  The  Committee  take  a  range  from  New  York 
to  Norfolk,  and  state  the  loans  made  to,  and  balances  due 
from,  editors  in  New  York,  Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Wash- 
ington, Richmond,  Va.  and  Norfolk.  "  Some  of  these  loans 
were  granted  (says  the  Committee)  at  a  period  too  remote 
from  the  present  times  to  be  subject  to  any  suspicion  of  im- 
propriety, while  others  have  been  obtained  by  editors  known 
to  be  hostile  to  the  Bank  itself."     Again — "  Loans  made  to 


125 

editors  have  existed  from  the  origin  of  the  Bank."  But  which 
of  the  Presidents,  except  President  Jackson,  saw,  or  even  sus- 
pected in  the  Bank,  a  design  to  render  the  press  its  stipen- 
diary, because  an  editor  of  a  newspaper  got  a  note  discounted 
by  it?  But  if  any  one  of  those  high  minded  and  honourable 
men,  had  so  far  forgot  the  honour  due  to  his  character,  and 
to  the  nation,  as  to  have,  as  has  President  Jackson,  by  "  re- 
warding" publicly  and  otherwise,  the  editors  of  the  press;  and 
forcing  into  the  press  as  he  forces  to  this  hour  into  the  Globe, 
and  as  his  office-holders  are  compelled  by  him  to  force  into 
the  Globe's  allies,  thousands  of  the  public  money,  he  might  be 
supposed  dishonourable  enough  to  originate  a  charge,  as  has 
General  Jackson  against  the  Bank,  of  bribery  of  the  press, 
when  the  Bank,  acting  in  the  business  of  its  calling,  (which 
is  to  loan  money,  and  to  judge  of  the  proper  amount  and  of 
the  security,)  loans  a  portion  of  its  funds  to  editors. 

As  with  other  things,  so  with  the  press.  Does  General 
Jackson  disgrace  the  country  by  appointing  in  the  face  of  his 
own  published  denunciation  of  the  practice,  subservient  mem- 
bers of  Congress  to  office?  Does  he,  in  this  way,  destroy  the 
independence  of  that  body,  as  he  has,  most  effectually,  the 
independence  of  the  House  of  Representatives?  He  directly 
charges  the  Bank  with  a  like  interference,  and  a  like  purpose, 
to  make  Congress  subservient  to  its  ends.  Does  he  reward 
editors  and  pay  them  out  of  the  public  treasury  for  their 
fidelity  to  himself  and  his  measures?  Instantly  he  starts  the 
cry — "the  bank  is  buying  up  the  press." — And  so  of  all  the 
rest.  It  is  as  old  as  the  days  of  .^sop,  that  an  old  fox  of  his 
times,  loosing  his  own  tail  in  a  trap,  set  to  work  to  have  all 
the  foxes  appear  in  a  like  disgraceful  predicament.  The  old 
fox  of  modern  times  has  had  the  luck  to  make  a  good  many 
silly  ones  believe  that  the  fashion  set  by  himself,  odious  as  it 
is,  is  followed  by  others,  especially  by  so  dignified  an  institu- 
tion as  the  United  States  Bank.  To  have  appeared  a  solitaire 
in  this  disgrace,  was  more  than  even  the  old  Roman,  or  the 
hero  of  three  wars,  could  bear.  The  public  can  be  at  no  loss 
to  understand  this  whole  business.  If  it  were  cheap,  or  did 
not  cost  the  country  too  much  in  suffering  and  in  dishonour, 


136 

the  cunning  of  the  scheme  might  be  laughed  at.  But  it  is 
too  serious  a  matter  for  a  joke. 

The  Committee  bestow  much  labour  and  occupy  much 
space  in  describing  the  6th  point  in  order,  viz :  "  Loans  to 
members  of  Congress  and  functionaries  of  the  Government." 

Here  the  Committee  meet  President  Jackson  and  his  host 
of  calumniators  face  to  face.  And  what  does  the  Committee 
tell  them  1  "  The  same  remark,  says  the  Committee,  which 
was  made  in  regard  to  editors,  is  applicable  also  to  members 
of  Congress  and  other  public  functionaries — loans  have  been 
obtained  by  them  of  the  Bank  at  every  period  of  its  existence. 
The  remark  applies  to  those  who  now  hold  executive  offices, 
as  to  those  who  now  are,  or  have  been,  members  of  Congress, 
and  this  without  regard  to  the  political  predilection  of  the 
borrowers." 

This  every  honest  man  might  have  expected.  But  now 
let  us  see  how  far  President  Jackson's  charge  of  bribery  is 
true.  If  the  aggregate  sum  had  been  increased,  to  any  con- 
siderable amount,  then  a  disingenious  mind  like  his,  might 
have  some  ground  for  its  suspicions.  But  if,  instead  of  this, 
the  loans  to  members  of  Congress,  and  public  functionaries, 
are  diminished,  by  a  comparison  betvveen  present  and  former 
times,  showing  a  less  sum  loaned  now,  than  previously,  I 
should  like  to  know  if  that  fact,  clearly  set  forth,  ought  not 
to  cover  with  shame  these  bold  and  reckless  calumniators? 
Well,  let  us  see  what  the  committee  bring  forth.  Let  the 
committee  speak : — 

"  In  the  year  1826,  the  loans  to  members  of  Congress  at  the  Bank  and 
all  the  branches,  then  in  existence,  amounted  to  237,437  dollars;  and  in 
the  present  year,  with  the  addition,  since  1826,  of  several  branches,  and 
an  increase  in  the  number  of  members  of  Congress,  to  258,227  dollars. 
The  amount  of  loans  during  the  present  year  is  less  by  111,539,  (deducting 
from  the  loans  of  1833  a  large  loan  on  stock,  and  drafts  in  this  office,  than 
in  1833,)  by  $69,826,  than  in  1832;  and  by  $63,971,  than  in  the  year  1831; 
and  that  there  has  been  a  similar  declension  in  comparison  with  the  loans 
of  each  of  the  officers  with  the  exception  of  one,  at  which  the  amount  is 
not  extravagantly  large,  whilst  at  many  others  no  loans  for  any  amount  exist 
in  1834.  It  is  proper  to  remark,  that  the  amount  at  Philadelphia  and 
Washington  in  the  year  1832,  over  succeeding  and  preceding  years,  arises 
from  the  fact,  that  in  that  year,  a  loan  on  stock,  amounting  to  100,000  dol- 


127 

lars,  was  g^nted  to  one  member,  now  dead,  at  Philadelphia,  and  that  at 
Washington,  discounts  to  the  amount  of  50,000  dollars,  on  Post  Office 
acceptances,  &c.  were  granted  to  another/' 

The  committee  vouch  for  the  correctness  of  this  statement. 

Now  what  becomes  of  the  cry  of  "Bribery — Corruption — 
Congress  bought  by  the  Bank,  &c."  I  will  answer  what  is 
destined  to  become  of  it.  It  will  rebound,  laden  with  all  the 
disgrace  and  infamy  it  was  sent  forth  to  heap  upon  others, 
and  settle,  in  noisome,  and  festering,  and  corroding  effects, 
upon  those  who  sent  it  forth ;  and  upon  those  who  gave  it  cir- 
culation. History  will  preserve  these  men,  not  in  the  gums 
and  spices  of  Egypt,  but  in  the  offensive  and  disgusting  ma- 
terials from  the  laboratory  of  their  own  calumnies. 

On  the  seventh  and  last  point,  I  shall  make  but  a  few  re- 
marks; referring  the  reader  to  my  17th  number,  he  will  find 
there,  perhaps,  reasons  enough  why  the  Bank  should  publish 
and  circulate  documents  and  speeches  for  its  defence;  The 
committee  think  the  Bank  was  extravagant.  So  might  a 
looker-on,  at  an  assault  made  by  desperadoes,  of  another  sort, 
upon  a  family  mansion.  He  might  suppose  the  inmates,  whose 
all  was  at  hazard,  would  have  been  equally  successful  in 
driving  back  the  assailants,  by  a  discharge  of  ten,  instead  of 
a  hundred  guns ;  in  which  case,  there  would,  of  course,  have 
been  saved  ninety  rounds  of  powder  and  ball.  But  those 
within,  to  whom  the  defence  was  entrusted,  and  whose  all 
was  in  jeopardy,  would,  nevertheless,  choose  to  judge  in  that 
matter^  for  themselves.     So  with  the  Bank. 

The  committee  would  seem  to  desire  that  the  Bank  ac- 
counts, or  its  President,  should  disclose  the  mode  and  names 
of  the  officers,  &c.  by  whose  agency  counterfeiters  were  de- 
tected and  calumnies  were  exposed.  The  Bank  had  just  as 
well  surrender  all  its  power,  and  every  future  attempt  to 
detect  and  expose  either.  It  is  a  branch  of  police.  Suppose 
the  Mayor  of  the  city,  and  the  High  Constables,  were  to  ex- 
pose to  the  public  their  plans  for  detecting  the  plunderers  of 
property,  and  give  the  names  of  those  they  employ  to  guard 
the  city  from  the  ravages  of  the  incendiary?  Would  it  not 
be,  virtually,  surrendering  all  their  power,  and  giving  the 


128 

city  up?  Just  so  with  the  Bank.  It  has  to  contend  against 
a  double  enemy;  and  to  adapt  its  operations  and  expenses  to 
these  double  movements.  On  the  one  hand,  it  has  to  meet 
the  calumniator;  and  on  the  other  the  counterfeiter;  and  then 
again,  to  watch  the  incendiaries,  in  their  attempt,  by  runs 
upon,  to  break  its  branches !  In  1832  the  Bank  had  to  pay 
$4,040  for  protecting  the  Western  Branches  from  the  hire- 
lings which  ^'the  party"  employed  to  make  a  run  upon,  with 
a  view  to  break  them ! 

Upon  the  point  of  disclosing  the  objects  of  the  Bank's  ex- 
penditure, the  President  of  the  Bank  has  satisfied  every  man 
who  knows  what  he  averred  to  the  committee  his  willingness 
to  do.  And  what  was  it  1  Why,  reader,  "  to  verify  under 
ani/  form  of  solemnity,  "in  ani/  way  agreeable  to  the  commit- 
tee, for  what  the  expenditure  had  not  been  made;"  and  "that 
no  portion  of  it  had  been  made  to  subsidize  any  portion  of 
the  public  press,  or  to  tamper  with,  or  affect  the  purity  of 
any  public  functionary." 

This  will  silence  for  ever,  among  honest  and  honourable 
men,  all  the  clamor  which  has  been  raisted  against  the  Bank 
on  these  heads — for  lives  there  a  man  who  would  not  believe 
Nicholas  Biddle  on  his  word?  Who  then  would  for  a  moment 
question  his  oath? 

In  my  next  I  shall  review  the  conduct  of  Governor  Wolf, 
George  M.  Dallas,  Joel  B.  Sutherland,  and  others,  on  this 
subject;  and  then,  with  an  appeal  to  the  public,  close  these 
essays. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  29. 

The  position  occupied  by  the  leaders  of  the  Jackson  party 
in  Pennsylvania,  is  one  which  no  high-minded  or  honourable 
man  can  contemplate  without  disgust.  "Poor  human  nature!" 
Here  we  have  it  sunk  many  degrees  below  its  ordinary  con- 
dition— with  Pennsylvania  selected  for  the  theatre  on  which 
to  exhibit  the  excess  of  its  degradation. 


Let  us  first,  an5  for  a  moment  only,  confemplate  the  posi- 
tion of  Gov.  Wolf, — I  do  not  mean  in  the  relation  which  he 
now  stands  to  his  own  party,  and  to  those  whom,  at  the  ex- 
pense of  principle,  he  patronized.  He  is  in  j-ougher  hands 
than  mine.  His  own  creatures  have  clutched  him  by  the 
throat,  and  hold,  at  this  moment,  the  nauseous  cup  of  his  own 
mixing  to  his  lips — forcing  it  upon  him  till  he  shall  drink  it 
to  the  very  dregs.  This  is  retributive  justice,  and  may  be 
regarded  as  a  specimen  of  what  these  Jackson  patriots  hold  in 
reserve  for  one  another  in  detail.  As  deserters  from  prin- 
ciple, from  the  constitution,  and  liberty" — as  men  in  close  al- 
liance with  the  grossest  selfishness,  following  after  the  loaves 
and  fishes,  in  utter  recklessness  of  what  may  befal  their  coun- 
try, when  SUCH  men  get  by  the  ears,  there  is  no  quarter. 
Like  the  Kilkenny  cats,  they  never  fail  to  devour  one  an- 
other. I  have  nothing  to  do  with  their  family  quarrels,  nor 
with  the  loathing  exhibitions  they  make  of  each  other.  My 
business  is  with  their  leaders,  when  they  acted  in  concert, 
first  FOR  the  Bank,  and  then  against  the  Bank.  Let  us  to 
Gov.  Wolf. 

It  is  very  well  known,  nor  will  the  most  illiterate  deny 
the  truth  of  the  position,  that  down  to  1832,  the  policy  of 
democratic  Pennsylvania,  was  formed  of  three  cardinal 
points,  viz:— THE  BANK;  DOMESTIC  PROTECTION; 
and  INTERNAL  IMPROVEMENT."  That  man  who 
might  have  attempted,  down  to  that  period,  and  even  for  some 
time  after,  to  sever  these,  would  have  been  denounced  as  a 
traitor,  not  to  the  State  only,  but  to  his  party,  and  to  .the  na- 
tion. Upon  this  ground,  we  find  George  Wolf.  What  did 
he  say,  so  late  as  his  message  of  December,  1832? — 

"  I  cannot  omit,"  he  says,  *'  whilst  bringing  before 

your  notice  such  measures  of  national  policy,  as  it  is  believed 
Pennsylvania  ought  to  sustain,  to  take  a  passing  notice  of 
one  that  has  excited  no  ordinary  state  of  feeling,"  &c.  He 
then  adverts  to  the  resolutions  which  passed  both  branches  of 
the  Pennsylvania  Legislature,  '*  with  great  unanimity,"  call- 
ing upon  their  Senators  and  Representatives  in  Congress  to 
*'  use  their  exertions  to  obtain  a  renewal  of  the  charter  of  the 
17 


130 

Bank  of  the  United  States."  He  next  speaks  of  the  bill  which 
had  passed  Congress  for  that  purpose,  and  of  the  President's 
veto;  and  cannot  believe  that  the  same  fate  awaited  every  bill 
that  might  pass  both  Houses  of  Congress  on  that  subject,  and 
then  adds: 

"  The  Bank  of  the  United  States,  whatever  may  be  alleged  to  the 

contrary,  has  certainxt  done  the  country  service.  It  has  established  a 
circulating  medium,  in  which  the  people  have  confidence.  It  is  not  denied, 
I  believe,  that  it  has  greatly  facilitated  the  operations  of  the  General  Go- 
vernment, so  far  as  its  pecuniary  transactions  were  concerned;  and  it  is 
admitted,  that  it  has  materially  aided  individuals  in  their  pecuniary  arrange- 
ments with  each  other,  and  especially  in  the  transmission  of  money  to  dis- 
tant parts  of  the  Union.  It  would  (he  continues)  be  a  subject  of  deep 
regret,  therefore,  if  a  too  strict  adherence  to  a  critical  construction  of  the 
constitution,  &c.,  or  a  too  critical  analysis  of  its  expediency,  in  a  moral  or 
political  point  of  view,  &c.  should  have  the  effect  to  prevent  a  renewal  of 
its  charter— thus  unsettling  that  which  has  heretofore  been  considered 
PART  of  the  established  policy  of  the  country." 

So  much  for  Governor  Wolf,  as  he  was  in  December,  1832, 
and  as  he  had  been  antecedent  to  that  period.  In  previous 
messages,  he  advocated  the  Bank,  and  urged  upon  the  Le- 
gislature its  .excellence,  and  the  importance  of  its  continued 
existence.    • 

Now  let  us  take  a  bird's-eye  view  of  Charles  Jared  Inger- 
soU.  Let  us  look  at  him  in  1831.  We  find  him  in  the 
House  of  Representatives  of  Pennsylvania,' upon  his  feet,  bolt 
upright,  offering  the  following  resolution: 

"  Resolved,  as  the  sense  of  this  House,  (of  his  own  as  a  member  of  it,) 
that  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  authorizes,  and  near  a  half  cen- 
tury's experience  sanctions,  a  Bank  of  the  United  States,  as  necessary  and 
proper  to  regulate  the  value  of  money,  and  prevent  paper  currency  of  an 
unequal  and  depreciated  value." 

There  is  no  mistaking  this.  It  is  true,  it  was  offered  when 
Governor  Wolf  was  for  the  Bank;  when  the  Legislature  was 
for  the  Bank;  and  when  Andrew  Jackson  was  not  understood 
to  be  altogether  against  it.  The  ground,  therefore,  felt  pret- 
ty safe.  G.  J.  Ingersoll  never  risks  any  thing  except  principle. 
Let  us  take  a  look  at  Doctor  Jesse  R.  Burden.  We  find 
him  plump  up  by  the  side  of  Charles  Jared  Ingersoll,  flou- 
rishing a  resolution  in  the  same  Legislature,  in  these  words: 
'« Resolved,  That  whereas  the  Bank  of  the  United  States  has  tended,  in 


isr 

a  great  degree,  to  maintain  a  sound  and  uniform  currency,  to  facilitate  the 
financial  operations  of  the  Government,  to  regulate  foreign  and  domestic 
exchange,  and  has  been  conducive  to  commercial  prosperity,  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Legislature  recommend  a  renewal  of  its  charter,  under  such  regula- 
tions and  restrictions,  as  to  the  power  of  the  respective  States,  as  Congress 
may  deem  right  and  proper." 

On  the  question  on  this  resolution,  it  passed  75  to  11. 

During  the  same  session  of  the  Legislature,  but  at  an  earlier 
period,  viz:  June,  1832,  the  following  resolution  was  passed 
UNANIMOUSLY: 

"Resolved,  That,  connected  as  the  prosperity  of  agriculture  and  manu- 
factures is,  with  the  successful  financial  operations  and  sound  currency  of 
the  country,  we  view  the  speedy  rechartering  of  the  Bank  of  the  United 
States,  with  such  alterations  as  may  secure  the  rights  of  the  States,  if  any 
be  necessary,  as  of  QCJ^  VITAL  IMPORTANCE  TO  THE  PUBLIC  WEL- 
FARE." 

Quitting  the  Legislature,  we  go  to  Congress.  Let  us  see 
who  stands  up  there  in  support  of  those  resolutions,  and  in  fa- 
vour of  a  recharter  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  Fore- 
most stands  George  M.  Dallas.  He  was  Chairman  of  the 
Committee  of  the  Senate,  and  reported  a  bill,  rechartering 
the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The  bill  reported,  he  stood 
by  it,  defending  and  sustaining  it,  at  every  step ;  and  at  last  • 
records  his  vote  in  its  favour.  Mr.  Wilkins  was  no  less  ardent 
and  active  in  supporting  the  bill,  than  Mr.  Dallas.  Through 
the  Senate,  the  bill  finds  its  way  into  the  House.  It  goes 
through  that  body,  and  next  in  the  hands  of  President  Jack- 
son, when  it  was  made  to  share  the  fate  of  other  bills,  since 
that  time,  by  being  vetoed. 

We  return  to  the  House,  to  see  by  whose  special  agency 
the  bill  was  fostered  and  taken  care  of  there.  Foremost  we 
find,  in  all  the  ardour  of  one  anxious  to  support  this  branch 
of  Pennsylvania  policy,  JOEL  B.  SUTHERLAND.  I  must 
beg  to  possess  the  reader  of  some  of  the  words,  that  on  the 
9th  January,  1832,  fell  from  the  lips  of  this  consistent  per- 
sonage.    Hear  him — 

"  There  was  one  point  on  which  he  felt  bound  to  put  a  question  to  the 
Honourable  gentleman  from  Georgia.  Did  that  Honourable  gentleman 
mean  to  assert  that  the  president  and  directors  of  the  United  States  Bank, 
residing  in  Philadelphia,  (men  of  as  lofty  character,  of  as  strict  honour  and 
respectability,  as  any  set  of  men  is  this  country,  in  this  House  or  out  of  it;) 


132 

did  he  mean  to  say,  that  these  men  were  influenced  to  bring  this  measure 
forward  by  the  movements  of  a  political  party?  It  was  no  political  move- 
ment," &c. 

If  there  was  any  one  man,  in  either  House  of  Congress, 
more  ardent  than  any  other  in  defending  the  Bank  and  in  ad- 
vocating its  recharter,  that  man  was  Joel  B.  Sutherland.  The 
whole  Pennsylvania  delegation  in  Congress,  with  only  a  single 
exception,  advocated  the  bill  for  a  recharter.  Even  Henry 
Horn,  who  'xannot  lie,"  said  the  Bank  was  good,  and  must  be 
preserved. 

Now  then,  we  have  Gov.  Wolf,  the  whole  of  the  Legislature 
of  Pennsylvania,  Ingersoll,  Burden,  and  Petrekin,  as  its  leaders. 
All  the  Delegation  except  one,  in  Congress,  with  Dallas,  Wil- 
kins,  Sutherland,  and  Horn,  as  leaders,  all  warmly  and  zea- 
lously advocating  the  Bank,  and  calling  loudly  for  its  rechar- 
ter.    On  a  sudden  they  all  change ! ! ! 

Like  the  tide  that  bears  onward  the  materials  when  it 
floods,  and  back  again  when  it  ebbs,  so  we  find  the  whole  of 
these  men,  borne  by  a  current  of  another  sort,  in  the  di- 
rectly opposite  course.  All  for  the  Bank,  as  we  have  seen  ; 
and  anon,  all,  not  only  against  it,  but  bitter  and  reproachful 
enemies — real  hunters,  blood-hounds,  in  full  run  after  its  de- 
struction ! 

Were  there  no  inducements  to  this  change^  Wilkins  has 
got  his  18,000  dollars  for  the  first  year,  and  will  get  his  9000 
dollars  for  each  remaining  year  that  he  may  fill  the  appoint- 
ment which  he  has  received  as  his  "reward"  for  his  defection 
from  himself,  from  principle,  and  from  his  country's  good  and 
his  country's  honour. 

Jesse  R.  Burden  has  never  been  known,  even  in  the  affair 
of  the  State  Loan,  to  act  without  inducement;  and  whether 
he  comes  under  the  denomination  of  a  seeker  after  office,  under 
General  Jackson's  promise  to  "reward  his  friends,"  those  who 
know  him  better  than  I  do,  may  determine. 

If  Mr.  Dallas  can  assign  one  good  reason  for  his  conduct,  I 
shall  be  happy  to  hear  and  record  it.  The  school  in  which 
he  was  instructed,  never  taught  a  conduct  so  liable  to  damn 
the  reputation  of  a  citizen  for  consistency,  and  to  establish  a 


•    133 

preference  of  self  over  a  love  of  coxrntrf.  And  if  he  can  sTibw 
that  he  has  not  had  the  promise  of  several  offices,  (although 
disappointed  to  this  hour,)  he  will  go  far  towards  shaking 
public  opinion  touching  the  motive  which  prompted  him  to 
such  mysterious  and  humiliating  conduct;  and  for  myself,  I 
shall  be  happy  to  record  it. 

As  to  Sutherland,  he  has  written  in  ever-during  characters 
his  political  creed.  He  has  avowed  that  he  is  "  a  man  of 
principle  according  to  his  interest"  It  would  seem  that 
after  having  made  a  tool  of  Governor  Wolf,  he  has  used  him 
since  pretty  much  to  his  own  liking.  He  can  command  a 
Judgeship  with  as  much  ease  as  a  bird  can  pick  from  its  stem 
a  cherry;  and  he  can  drop  it  as  quickly — when  a  riper,  or 
more  inviting  object  strikes  his  eye. 

As  to  Governor  Wolf's  motives  for  his  conduct,  besides  se- 
curing a'  permanence  of  office  for  a  son  at  Washington,  they 
can  be  resolved  into  nothing  but  those  which  demonstrate  his 
abandonment  of  the  State,  and  its  honours  and  interests,  into 
the  hands  of  a  party,  whose  object  is  to  surrender  all  that  is 
Pennsylvanian  to  him  of  Kinderhook,  and  to  the  rulers  of  the 
Albany  regency.  Or,  in  other  words,  as  has  been  said  by 
another,  he  has  condescended  to  surrender  his  guardianship  of 
the  state,  and  its  interests,  and  come  down  from  the  elevated 
position  of  Governor,  to  hold  the  candle  whilst  Martin  Van 
Buren  writes  the  will  of  the  State ! 

A  few  words  to  the  men  I  have  thus  arraigned  at  the  bar 
of  public  opinion.  First  to  Governor  Wolf.  For  which  of  the 
benefits  conferred  by  the  Bank,  as  avowed  in  your  Message 
of  December,  1832,  as  quoted,  have  you  become  the  enemy 
of  the  Bank  ?  Is  it  because  the  Bank,  "  whatever  may  be 
alleged  to  the  contrary,  has  done  the  country  service?"  Or 
is  it  because  "  it  has  established  a  circulating  medium,  in 
which  the  people  have  confidence?"  Or  because  (there  being 
no  "denial")  "it  has  greatly  facilitated  the  operations  of  the 
General  Government?"  Or,  as  "it  is  admitted,"  "that  it  has 
materially  aided  individuals  in  their  pecuniary  arrangements 
with  each  other — and  especially  in  the  transmission  of  money 
to  distant  parts  of  the  Union?"    For  which  of  these  confessed 


134    . 

and  recorded  benefits,  I  ask,  is  it  that  you  consented  to  seize 
the  dagger  of  your  official  station,  and  plunge  it  in  the  vitals 
of  this  great  public  and  private  beneficiary?  Or  did  you  thus 
eulogise  it  in  derision  ?  Either  you  were  honest  then,  or  you 
are  not  honest  now;  or  you  are  honest  now,  and  were  dishonest 
then.  Do  you  resort  to  the  calumnies  I  have  exposed,  in  your 
justification !  Sir,  you  kntw  they  were  calumnies.  You  can 
take  no  refuge  there.  Take,  then,  the  reward  of  your  incon- 
sistency— your  perfidy — the  pay  of  the  time-serving  politician 
— the  contempt  of  all  honest  men. 

I  will  not  pursue  the  men,  your  co-workers,  who  are  trans- 
fixed with  the  poisoned  arrows  of  their  own  make.  They  are, 
one  and  all,  in  the  same  predicament.  On  them  devolves  the 
duty  to  justify  their  recreant  conduct,  and  explain  to  a  dis- 
gusted and  injured  people  how  they  could  act  the  parts  they 
have  acted,  in  behalf  of  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  and 
then  turn,  as  one  man,  to  cut  and  hack  it  in  pieces ! 

These  acts  may  be,  for  a  while,  screened  from  the  public 
ire  by  the  .shield  of  party  and  party  success — but  a  day  will 
arrive,  in  this  world,  when  a  wasting  pestilence  will  unnerve 
all  that  may  now  seem  to  be  bold ;  when  the  office  holder, 
and  the  office  seeker,  who  have  united  to  carry  on  this  ini- 
quitous war  upon  the  currency,  the  very  life  blood  of  the 
country,  will  tremble  in  the  presence  of  men,  who,  breathing 
a  higher  and  purer  atmosphere,  will  dart  from  their  eyes  in- 
dignant glances  of  contempt  upon  all  such  conduct,  and  when 
a  patriotic  and  renovated  people  will  consign  to  merited  dis- 
grace all  such  time,  and  party  serving  men. 

ARISTIDES. 


No.  30. 

I  have  gone,  generally,  over  the  field  of  this  Bank  contro- 
versy. I  have  found  it  filled  with  official  and  pensioned 
calumniating  enemies.  Like  all  mercenaries,  their  labours 
in  the  cause  of  their  master,  have  been,  in  the  precise 
ratio  of  the  "  rewards"  promised  to  them.    At  this  point 


135 

lies  the  secret  of  Jacksonism.  Some  will  have  it  that  the  sup- 
port given  by  the  people  to  the  high-handed  acts  of  this  party 
— even  in  its  war  on  the  Bank,  and  the  atrocious  plunder  of 
the  Post  Office  Department,  is  owing  to  the  personal  popu- 
larity of  Andrew  Jackson.  This  is  an  error.  It  is  owing, 
exclusively,  to  the  proofs  he  has  given  that  he  will  "reward," 
not  the  virtuous,  the  intelligent,  the  competent,  but  however 
incompetent,  or  vicious,  or  ignorant,  those  who  will  throw 
themselves  at  his  feet,  shout  to  his  honour,  and  commend, 
"right  or  wrong,"  his  acts.  This,  and  this  alone,  is  the  secret 
of  Jacksonism,  and  of  this  debasing  lure,  comes  the  power  of 
"the  party."  Cunning  men — men  versed  in  human  nature, 
and  who  know  the  springs  which  control  it,  in  its  most  de- 
graded state,  planned  this  contrivance,  and  Andrew  Jackson 
was  the  very  man  on  whom  they  knew  they  could  rely  for 
the  consummation  of  their  debased  and  debasing  schemes. 
The  avenue  to  his  favour  is  that  of  the  grossest  flattery.  This 
is  easy  to  be  administered,  especially  by  those  who  have  the 
honour  of  his  respect  and  confidence,  and  any  man  can  secure 
these  by  administering  a  copious  dose  of  flattery.  It  is  only 
necessary  for  an  intelligent  mind  to  survey  the  men  (with  a 
few,  and  only  a  few,  exceptions)  that  are  in  the  service  of 
the  present  administration,  to  perceive  at  once,  the  motives 
that  led  to  their  adhesion  and  their  appointment.  It  is  a 
question  with  me,  whether,  if  the  crusade  set  on  foot  against 
the  Bank,  had  been  organized  against  the  Constitution  and 
Liberty,  direct,  the  same  men  who  have  been  employed  to 
produce  the  downfal  of  the  former,  would  not  have  been  just 
as  ready  to  engage  in  a  war  of  extermination  against  the  lat- 
ter. It  is  a  question,  did  I  say?  I  recall  this,  and  before 
God,  I  declare,  I  believe  the  great  body  of  them  would  have 
been  found  as  ready  to  overthrow  the  one,  as  they  have  been 
active  in  destroying  the  other.  The  only  inducement  neces- 
sary to  this,  would,  at  this  moment,  be  additional  "  rewards." 
I  copy  the  following  paragraph,  from  a  public  journal.  It 
illustrates  in  what  the  charm  of  Jacksonism  consists.  It  shows 
in  what  Gen.  Jackson's  popularity  consists.  Strip  him  of  this 
"rewarding"  and  bribing  power,  or  confine  him  to  a  constitu- 


136 

tional  exercise  of  Executive  patronage,  and  to  a  decent  re- 
spect for  himself,  in  the  use  of  it,  and  there  would  not  exist, 
any  where,  a  man  who  would  be  so  universally  despised.  And 
it  is  this  "rewarding"  system  alone,  that  keeps  alive,  and  im- 
parts action  and  power  to  "the  party;"  and  it  is  this  that  ope- 
rates upon  the  sort  of  men  who  surround  the  person  of  their 
Chief,  and  who  are  heard  shouting  to  him  over  the  country. 
But  to  the  paragraphs : 

"The  appointment  of  Robert  T.  Lytic,  the  Cincinnati  Representative  in 
the  last  Congress,  to  the  Surveyor  Generalship  of  Ohio,  by  the  President, 
before  his  seat  in  Congress,  from  which  he  had  been  indignantly  rejected 
by  his  abused  constituents,  had  got  fairly  cold,  affords  another  striking  evi- 
dence of  the  regard  which  the  President  entertains  for  his  solemn  pledges 
to  the  people.  He  declared  previous  to  his  election,  that  when  such  ap- 
pointments were  practised,  "corruption  would  be  the  order  of  the  day"  and 
he  would  render  members  of  Congress  ineligible  to  any  such  appointment 
during  the  term  for  which  they  were  elected,  and  two  years  thereafter, 
by  amending  the  constitution.  Yet  he  does  not  hesitate  to  add  another 
to  the  numerous  precedents  which  his  administration  has  afforded  of  Exe- 
cutive bribery,  or  what  he  declared  to  be  bribery. 

"Another  case,  in  the  appointment  of  Mr.  Kavanagh,  to  a  high  diplo- 
matic station,  in  less  time  after  his  seat  in  Congress  became  vacated,  than 
it  would  require  for  his  journey  to  his  constituents.  Ly  tie  and  Kavanagh 
were  both  members  of  Congress,  both  were  candidates  for  re-election,  both 
rejected  by  the  people  for  supporting  the  corruptions  of  the  administra- 
tion, and  both  returned  from  Congress,  with  their  appointments  in  their 
pockets,  to  show  their  constituents  that  when  the  people  would  not  sustain 
them,  the  power  of  the  President  would.'" 

A  power  like  this,  and  thus  prostituted,  requires  to  be  over- 
come, the  prevalence  of  Roman  virtue,  and  the  employment 
of  the  opposite  and  counteracting  means.  Can  Patriotism 
successfully  combat  this  power,  or  drive  back  this  stream  of 
corruption,  if  those  who  are  influenced  by  it  keep  back  any 
part  of  the  sacrifice  required  to  make  its  efforts  effective?  la 
it  rational  to  see  an  evil,  and  feel  its  effects,  and  sit  quietly 
with  folded  arms,  and  mourn  over,  and  expect  it  to  retire? 
Are  the  rich  in  Ihis  great  contest  justifiable  in  turning  the 
key  upon  their  treasures,  when  money  may  be  required  to 
scatter  fight  among  the  people,  and  employ  the  appropriate 
power  for  meeting  and  driving  back  the  armies  of  mercenaries 
that  are  laying  waste  the  land? 


137 

It  is  to  the  government  patronage,  prostituted  as  it  is,  and 
the  use  of  the  public  money,  in  employing  and  rewarding 
officers,  and  to  the  calumnies  they  are,  in  these  ways,  paid 
for  circulating,  that  we  must  look  for  the  secret  of  the  success 
of  Jacksonism ;  and  we  may  find  in  our  own  want  of  union 
and  of  action,  the  secret  of  the  failure  of  our  designs,  so  far, 
to  save  the  country. 

The  friends  of  the  constitution  have  to  encounter  a  fearful 
responsibility.  They  must  surrender  sectional  and  personal 
predilections,  and  forego  what  they  would  desire,  for  what 
they  can  obtain,  or  as  certain  as  their  is  a  sun  in  the  Heavens, 
all  will  be  lost !  Thrown  by  the  power — forced  by  the  stream 
of  corruption  from  their  position,  the  patriots  of  the  Republic 
have  nothing  left  but  to  get  footing  where  they  can.  The 
question  at  present  is,  not  whether  Henry  Clay,  John  C.  Cal- 
houn, or  Daniel  Webster,  or  any  other  great  man,  shall  be 
President  of  the  United  States,  but  whether  Liberty  and 
Union  shall  be,  or  cease  to  be.  If  general  Jackson  shall  suc- 
ceed, by  his  system  of  "  rewards,"  in  buying  up  enough  of 
Swiss  power  to  elect  his  successor,  as  he  has  been  in  sustain- 
ing himself,  I  would  not  give  a  pinch  of  snuff  for  our  Liberty, 
our  Constitution,  or  our  Union.  Success  here,  and  under  the 
circumstances  of  the  case,  would  amount  to  a  virtual  aban- 
donment of  the  first,  and  a  dissolution  of  the  last.  It  would 
be  so,  since  the  evils  we  endure  now,  are  borne,  not  be- 
cause they  are  not  destructive  of  Liberty,  but  from  the  hope 
that  there  is  enough  of  virtue  in  the  Republic  to  save  it. 
This  hope  once  extinct,  and  the  power  of  General  Jackson  to 
entail  upon  us  a  successor  of  his  own  choice,  being  clearly 
shown,  there  will  be  an  end  to  the  Republic. 

Let  patriots,  therefore,  in  view  of  this  horrible  catastrophe, 
unite.  Let  them,  with  the  proofs  I  have  given  in  these  essays, 
of  the  power  of  Jacksonism,  and  of  the  mode  of  its  operation, 
when  brought  to  bear  on  the  great  monied  interests  of  the 
country,  take  the  alarm,  and  with  one  eye  on  this  war  on  the 
Bank,  and  the  other  on  the  rank  corruptions  of  the  Post  Of- 
fice Department,  and  all  the  departments,  resolve,  to  throw 

18 


138 

back  this  title  of  despotism,  and  restore  to  the  country,  its 
honour,  its  peace,  and  its  hopes. 

So  utterly  corrupt  has  the  whole  mass  of  "the  Government" 
become,  that  it  boasts  of  it !     Bribery — purchase  of  votes — 
the  exercise  of  the  Federal  patronage  in  state  affairs,  who 
pretends  to  deny?     As  well  might  it  be  attempted  to  deny 
that  night  and  day  succeed  each  other,  or  that  light  makes 
manifest.     J\o  longer  able  to  hide  the  corruptions  on  which 
the  minions  of  the  government  fatten,  they  are  held  up  by 
the  party  as  purity  personified.     Bitter  is  called  sweet,  and 
sweet  bitter.     Who  was  more  honoured  at  the  late  Jefferson 
dinner  in  Philadelphia,  than  Wm.  T.  Barry,  upon  whose  hor- 
rible administration  of  the  Post  Office  Department,  a  unani- 
mous vote  of  the  Senate  cast  a  censure — even  Isaac  Hill  vot- 
ing against  it ! — And  what  awaits  him?   A  mission  to  Spain  ! ! ! 
Eighteen  thousand  dollars  for  one  year,  and  nine  thousand  dol- 
lars a  year  afterwards,  for  what  ?  For  carrying  out  to  the  let- 
ter, I  answer,  the  scheme  of  rewarding  partisans ;  and  making 
public  money  subservient  to  the  perpetuation  of  Jacksonism. 
Well  might  Mr.  Calhoun  say  that  the  very  demonstration  of 
this  corruption  went  to  increase  the  power  of  the  party.  Let 
any  man  look  this  matter  full  in  the  face.     What  does  he 
see?     I  have  shown  him  in  these  essays  how  this  profligate 
party  moved  upon  the  Bank.     First,  by  slanders  the  most 
foul,  to  get  rid  of  an  honest  and  honourable  direction — then 
to  put  in  tools  of  their  own  selecting — this  failing,  calumny 
was  made  the  great  instrument  for  battering  it  down — men 
were  commissioned  to  act  as  "spies" — committees  were  formed 
to  implicate — a  man  was  selected  to  swear  away  the  good 
name  of  President  Biddle,  and  to  impeach  the  honour  of  the 
other  officers  of  the  Bank.     Every  resort  was  had  to  break 
down  the  system  of  currency  which  has  no  equal  on  the  face 
of  the  earth,  because  the  Bank,  which  gave  it  being,  and  sus- 
tained it,  would  not  bow  down  to,  and  become  the  tool  of 
Jacksonism.  I  have  proved  all  this.  What  next?  The  Senate 
by  a  unanimous  vote,  has  demonstrated  the  corruptions  of  the 
Post  Office  Department.    The  records  demonstrate  the  shock- 
ing depr^ity  of  the  Land  Office,  and  of  the  Indian  Depart- 


139 

ment.  A  smell  has  gone  forth ! — It  sickens  every  man  of  ho- 
nest or  honourable  feelings !  Laws  are  violated — the  Consti- 
tution spurned  at. — Marshals  are  subservient — and  a  Secre- 
tary of  the  Treasury,  for  daring  to  be  honest,  is  kicked  out  in 
the  face  of  all  the  people,  and  a  tool  put  in  his  place  to  do  the 
will  of  his  master.  All  this,  and  more,  is  as  visible  to  all  eyes 
as  the  sun  at  noon-day.  Why  is  it  the  people  do  not  rise  and 
cast  from  them  this  state  of  things?  Because,  1  answer,  they 
are  made  the  victims  of  calumny! 

Look  at  these  charges — all  sent  round  to  deceive  the  peo- 
ple! 

Extract  from  the  President's  letter  to  one  of  his  Secretaries. 

"The  Deposites  must  be  removed  before  Congress  meets,  or  the  Bank 
will  BBiBE  enoogh  of  the  Membehs  to  prevent  it." 

Extract  from  the  Government  Press. 
**  Senators  Clay  and  Webster  are  the  feed  lawyers  of  the  Bank,  and  hence 
their  great  exertions  in  its  behalf." 

From  the  same. 
"  Senator  Calhoun  instigated  the  assassination  of  the  President." 

From  the  same. 
"  Senator  Tipton  has  valuable  knds  on  the  Wabash,  and  hence  he  is 
trying  to  get  an  appropriation  to  improve  the  navigation  of  the  latter,  with 
a  view  to  improve  the  value  of  the  former." 

Extract  from  the  letter  of  a  Washington  correspondent. 
"  Senator  Webster  gets  a  fee  of  $5,000  to  aid  in  passing  a  bill  to  pay  off" 
the  French  claims." 

From  the  same. 
**Govemor  Tazewell,  of  Virginia,  pure  and  immaculate  as  he  Is  consi- 
dered, has  received  $50,000  from  the  United  States  Bank." 

From  the  same. 

**  Representative  A.  S.  Clayton,  who  was  so  violent  against  the  Bank, 
has  received  an  accommodation  from  that  institution,  and  it  has  glued  his 
tongue  to  the  roof  of  his  mouth." 

These,  reader,  are  the  sort  of  things  that  have  been  con- 
triyed  to  gull  the  people.  This  is  the  stream  of  poison,  and 
this  its  quality,  that  has  been  kept  constantly  running  from 
the  lips  of  President  Jackson,  and  from  the  Globe,  his  chosen 
and  "rewarded"  organ ;  and  on  these,  and  the  like,  have  the 


140 

people  been  taught  to  rely  for  intellectual,  and  moral,  and 
political  nourishment. 

So  far  as  these  calumnies  have  been  employed  against  the 
Bank,  1  have  exposed  them.  I  defy  successful  contradiction. 
From  the  Woodbury  and  Hill  scheme,  to  get  possession  of  the 
Bank,  to  the  Thomas  Committee,  contriving  to  destroy  it, I  have 
followed  the  "devised  instruments"  of  the  party,  and  exposed 
them,  and  their  degrading  and  degraded  agencies.  Aye,  and 
I  have  shown  the  position  of  your  Wolfs,  and  your  IngersoUs, 
and  your  Burdens,  and  Dallases,  and  Sutherlands; — and  what 
sort  of  positions  do  they  occupy?  Such  as  must  degrade  them 
in  the  eyes  of  all  honourable  men,  I  answer,  in  the  present 
and  in  all  future  time. 

I  have  done  my  duty — faithfully,  but  feebly.  In  abler 
hands,  the  exposition  of  this  foul  conduct,  of  men  professing 
to  be  honourable,  must  have  shaken  **the  party"  to  atoms — 
that  is,  if  corruption  be  not  an  overmatch  for  purity,  and 
licentiousness  for  liberty. 

ARISTIDES, 


APPENDIX, 


ARISTIDES  TO  THE  PUBLIC. 

Philadeuhia,  February  20,  1835. 
The  following  address  appeared  in  the  United  States  Gazette  of  this 
morning: 

TO  THE  PUBLIC. 

Phuadelphia,  February  19, 1835. 
My  attention  was  called,  a  few  days  since,  to  two  essays  in  the  Pennsyl- 
vania Inquirer  of  the  lOlh  and  12th  inst. ;  the  effusions  of  a  writer  who  as- 
sumes and  disgraces  the  signature  of  Aristides.  They  are  obviously  the 
production  of  a  false  and  malignant  libeller,  venting  personal  slander,  un- 
der the  pretence  of  political  discussion.  With  the  assistance  of  the  editor* 
frankly  afforded,  so  far  as  he  conceived  his  own  position  allowed,  I  endea- 
voured immediately  to  ascertain  the  name|of  this  concealed  traducer.  He 
has  bafHed  my  efforts,  on  pretexts  the  most  shuffling  and  contemptible. — 
Nothing  therefore  is  left  me  but  to  make  this  statement,  from  which  my 
fellow  citizens  may  appreciate  the  character  of  a  slanderer,  who,  to  the 
baseness  of  anonymous  defamation,  adds  the  meanness  of  evading  that  re- 
sponsibility which  no  honest  or  honourable  man  would  hesitate  to  assume. 

H.  D.   GILPIN. 

That  the  public  may  judge  of  the  truth  and  candour  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's 
assertions,  Aristides  begs  leave  to  submit  the  following  copies  of  letters 
which  have  passed  on  the  subject: 

Phiuloexphia,  14th  February,  1835. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Inquirer. 
Sir: — My  notice  has  been  called  to  two  essays,  published  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania Inquirer  of  the  10th  and  12th  instant,  under  the  signature  of  Aris- 
tides. 

They  are  obviously  to  rae  the  productions  of  a  false  and  malignant  li- 
beller, who,  while  venting  his  long-brewed  venom,  strives  to  avoid  re- 
sponsibility, by  mingling  personal  slander  with  political  discussion. 

As  you  disclaim  the  authorship  in  your  editorial  columns,  I  demand  that 
the  name  of  a  writer,  who  has  thus  wantonly  assailed  my  character,  shall 
be  communicated  to  the  bearer  of  this  note,  Gen.  A.  M.  Prevost. 

Your  obedient  servant, 

H.  D.  GILPIN. 

*  To  complete  this  work,  the  publishers  include  the  corrcspondeDce,  which  the 
essays,  at  a  certain  stage  of  their  progress,  gave  rise  to.  They  gire  that  corres- 
pndence  under  the  title  of  Appendix. 


142 

Mr.  Morris,  the  Editor  of  the  Inquirer,  having  communicated  the  above 
letter  to  Aristides,  Aristides  immediately  answered  it  as  follows: 

Philiseifhu^  February  15,  1835. 
To  R.  Morris,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  read  and  reflected  upon  the  papers  you  have  sent  me, 
namely,  a  letter  from  H.  D.  Gilpin  to  you,  demanding  the  author  of  cer- 
tain essays  in  the  Inquirer,  and  a  copy  of  your  answer. 

I  have  been  engaged,  and  yet  am,  in  the  discussion  of  a  great  public 
question,  involving  the  conduct  of  important  public  functionaries.  That 
conduct  I  have  spoken  of  freely,  but  in  no  instance  have  I  placed  it  in  a 
light  which  admitted  facts,  or  official  documents,  would  not  justify.  I  have 
yet  to  learn  that  a  free  exercise  of  the  right  of  a  citizen  to  examine 
the  conduct  of  public  officers  creates  a  personal  respoHsibility  to  every 
individual  officer  who  may  find  himself  incommoded  by  the  exposure. — 
Such,  from  the  tone  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  note,  and  the  channel  by  which  it 
reached  you,  I  take  to  be  the  responsibility  which  he  contemplates.  It 
is  one,  that  I  must,  at  present  decline. 

I  have  said  in  No.  13  of  my  essays,  that  "nothing  shall  turn  me  aside" 
from  the  prosecution  of  my  plan  for  exposing  to  the  public  the  calumnies 
against  the  Bank.  But  when  the  series  shall  be  completed,  my  position 
will  be  changed,  and  I  shall  be  willing  to  waive  the  ground  taken  in  the 
first  part  of  this  letter  upon  one  indispensable  condition. 

I  consider  the  three  individuals,  namely  H.  D.  Gilpin,  J.  T.  Sullivan, 
and  Peter  Wager,  as  jointly  referred  to  in  my  essays,  and  so  blended  to- 
gether, by  the  very  nature  of  their  own  acts,  that  they  cannot  be  severed, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  decide  what  cause  of  offence  may  have  been 
given  to  either,  separately.  It  follows  that  I  cannot  recognize  the  sepa- 
rate right  of  either,  to  personal  satisfaction.  If,  however,  these  three  per- 
sons will  sign  a  paper,  pledging  themselves,  after  the  conclusion  of  these 
essays  (which  will  be  within  two  weeks)  jointly  to  call  upon  me  for  the 
same  sort  of  satisfaction  which  the  tone  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  note,  and  the 
channel  by  which  it  was  delivered,  authorize  me  to  infer  he  contemplates, 
I  hereby  authorize  you,  on  the  receipt  of  suck  paper,  to  give  up  my  name. — 
I  pledge  myself  upon  the  receipt  of  such  a  joint  invitation,  promptly  to 
accept  it,  and  to  render  satisfaction  to  each;  and  in  order,  to  be  determin- 
ed by  lot. 

I  have  the  honour  to  be, 

With  great  respect,  your  ob't  serv't. 

ARISTIDES. 

On  the  receipt  of  the  foregoing,  Mr.  Morris  sent  a  copy  of  it  to  General 
PrevoBt — and  soon  after  he  received  from  the  General,  the  following  note, 
vrbich  he  communicated,  forthwith,  to  Aristides. 

Dear  Sir:— I  have  carefully  read  the  copy  of  your  correspondent's  note, 
which  you  put  in  my  hands  at  5  o'clock  this  afternoon. 

It  conveys  no  answer  to  the  demand  of  Mr.  Gilpin,  and  my  confidence 
in  your  own  character  and  sense  of  justice,  leads  roe  to  expect  such  a 


143 

prompt  and  explicit  communication  on  the  subject  of  that  demand,  as  a 
man  of  honour  should  give,  and  can  alone  consent  to  receive. 
I  am  respectfully  yours, 

A.  M.  PUEVOST. 
Robert  Morris,  Esq. 
February  U,  6,  P.  M.,  1835. 

Aristides  then  addressed  the  following  note  to  Mr.  Morris. 

Fhiladelphia,  February  15,  1835. 
To  R.  Morris,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir: — I  will  not  permit  any  occurrence  to  drive  me  from  my  pur- 
pose of  exposing  the  calumnies  against  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  I 
do  not  mean  to  be  shot  off,  on  account  of  my  labours  to  defend  truth  and 
justice,  at  least,  yet  awhile.  I  therefore  prohibit  the  annunciation  of  the 
name  of  the  writer  of  "  Aristides"  to  the  party  "  demanding"  it,  or  to  any 
other,  until  I  shall  have  concluded  the  essays.  These  being  finished,  you 
have  my  free  consent  to  give  up  my  name  to  General  Prevost,  if  you  deem 
it  necessary  or  proper  to  do  so. 

I  am  yours,  &c. 

ARISTIDES. 

Mr.  Morris,  after  reserving  some  time  for  consideration,  and  availing 
himself  of  such  counsel  as  he  thought  necessary,  addressed  a  letter  to  Ge- 
neral Prevost,  of  which  the  following  is  a  copy: 

Fhiladelphia,  Feb.  16,  1835. 

Dear  Sir: — After  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  Saturday,  announcing  that 
the  answer  of  "Aristides"  (of  which  I  handed  you  a  copy)  was  unsatisfac- 
tory, I  had  a  further  interview  with  that  individual.  In  the  course  of  the 
same  day,  I  received  from  him  a  note,  at  the  close  of  which  he  gave  his 
free  consent  to  the  surrender  of  his  name,  at  the  expiration  of  a  certain 
period,  provided  "  I  should  then  think  it  necessary  or  proper  to  do  so." 

This  answer  of  course  threw  upon  me  the  responsibility  of  deciding 
whether,  in  such  circumstances,  I  ought,  as  the  conductor  of  a  public 
press,  to  give  up  the  name  of  my  correspondent.  It  is  proper  here  to  say, 
that  in  all  my  intercourse  with  him,  both  before  and  since  your  application, 
he  has  denied  any  motive  of  personal  enmity,  or  any  design  to  go  beyond 
the  oiHcial  character  and  conduct  of  public  agents — and  that  if  I  had  given 
to  his  articles  a  different  construction,  they  should  not  have  been  admitted 
into  the  columns  of  the  Inquirer,  as  will  be  seen  on  reference  to  the  edito- 
rial paragraph  with  which  the  first  essay  was  introduced. 

Whether  a  writer  avowing  such  motives,  and  discussing  a  subject  mani* 
festly  proper  for  public  examination,  ought  voluntarily  to  leave  his  con- 
cealment, and  present  himself  as  a  mark  for  personal  assault;  and  whether, 
as  an  editor,  with  or  without  his  consent,  I  should  place  him  in  that  predica- 
ment, are  questions  of  such  delicacy  and  moment,  that  I  would  not  decide 


144 

them,  without  ample  time  for  reflection,  and  the  aid  of  the  best  advice 
within  my  reach.  They  involve  the  rights  and  independence  of  the  press, 
both  of  which  I  am  bound,  as  a  citizen  and  a  professional  man,  to  protect, 
so  long  as  they  may  not  interfere  with  the  rights  and  just  demands  of 
others.  They  involve  the  sanctity  of  the  relation  between  editors  and 
correspondents,  which  being  impaired,  the  press  must  lose  its  just  influence 
with  the  community.  To  the  time  thus  necessarily  devoted  to  reflection 
and  counsel,  you  are  to  attribute  the  delay  of  which  you  complain. 

That  the  whole  matter  might  be  brought  before  those  whom  I  deemed 
it  proper  to  counsel,  a7id  wliose  names  are  at  your  service,  if  required,  the 
following  queries  were  propounded  to  them,  by  me: — 

"  Query  1.  Aristides  having  distinctly  averred  that  in  the  papers  com- 
plained of,  he  meant  to  speak  of  the  official  acts  of  the  Government  Direc- 
tors— that  he  has  not  referred  to  their  private  chai-acter,  nor  designed  to 
implicate  that  character  beyond  what  was  inseparable  from  a  free  investi- 
gation of  their  public  conduct, — is  he  bound  to  authorize  the  surrender  of 
his  name  upon  the  demand  of  one  of  the  individuals  whose  public  conduct 
is  thus  criticised  ?" 

"  Query  2.  Should  Mr.  Morris  give  up  the  name  upon  a  similar  applica- 
tion?" 

Upon  both  the  points  thus  submitted,  my  friends  have  answered  in  the 
negative.  I  therefore  feel  it  my  duty,  very  respectfully  to  decline  furnish- 
ing you  with  the  name  demanded. 

The  decision  of  my  friends  has  been  given  on  the  ground  that  the  subject 
of  the  articles  being  unquestionably  a  proper  one  for  public  discussion,  and 
the  writer  having  disclaimed  allusion  to  any  thing  hut  public  and  official  acts, 
of  which  every  citizen  is  free  to  speak  and  think  as  he  pleases,  he  has  in- 
curred no  personal  responsibility  to  the  parties  named,  and  I  therefore 
would  do  wrong  to  him,  to  the  community,  and  to  the  profession  of  which 
I  am  a  member,  by  any  act  tending  to  dislodge  him  from  his  position. 

Very  respectfully, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 


Upon  the  foregoing  correspondence,  Aristides  confidently  leaves  his 
case  with  the  public.  His  essays  speak,  and  will  continue  to  speak,  for 
themselves.  Their  nature  cannot  be  changed,  nor  their  proper  effects 
diminished,  by  the  impotent  epithets  which  H.  D.  Gilpin  has  pressed  into 
his  service. 

In  conclusion,  Aristides  begs  leave  to  remark  that  whether  his  name  shall 
finally  become  known,  is  to  him  a  matter  of  perfect  indifference.  He  is 
influenced  by  no  apprehensions  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  vengeance.  His  first 
impulse  on  hearing  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  application,  was  to  request  Mr.  Mor- 
ris to  surrender  his  name  immediately.  He  would  do  so  now,  but  for  one 
consideration.  Believing  that  his  remarks  on  H.  D.  Gilpin's  conduct  as  a 
Bank  Director,  owe  their  severity  to  their  intrinsic  and  unanswerable  truth, 


145 

he  feels  no  obligation,  at  this  stage  of  the  affair,  and  ih  comf  exiow  with 
•WHAT  HAS  PASSED,  to  gratify  that  individual  with  an  opportunity  to  vent 
bis  own  passions,  or  divert  public  attention  from  his  own  merits  by  private 

warfare. 

ARISTIDES. 


The  foregoing  appearing,  Mr.  Gilpin  addressed  the  following  note  to 
the  Editor  of  the  U.  S.  Gazette. 

To  the  Editor  of  the  United  States  Gazette, 

Philadelphia,  21st  Feb.  1835.    . 
Sir: — "Aristides"  has  mutilated  the  correspondence  published  in  the 
Pennsylvania  Inquirer  of  this  morning,  by  suppressing  six  letters.    I  an- 
nex a  complete  copy  for  publication. 

Very  respect'y,  your  ob't  serv't, 

H.  D.  GILPIN. 


No.  1. 

Philadelphia,  14  February,  1835. 
To  the  Editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Inquirer. 
Sir, — My  notice  has  been  called  to  two  essays,  published  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania Inquirer  of  the  10th  and  12th  inst,  under  the  signature  of  Aris- 
tides. 

They  are  obviously  to  me  the  productions  of  a  false  and  malignant  li- 
beller, who,  while  venting  his  long-brewed  venom,  strives  to  avoid  re- 
sponsibility, by  mingling  personal  slander  with  political  discussion. 

As  you  disclaim  the  authorship  in  your  editorial  columns,  I  demand  that 
the  name  of  a  writer,  who  has  thus  wantonly  assailed  my  character,  shall 
be  communicated  to  the  bearer  of  this  note.  Gen.  A.  M.  Prevost. 
Your  obedient  servant, 

H.  D.  GILPIN. 

No.  2. 

iNauiREB  Office,         > 
Saturday  morning,  Feb.  14,  1834.*      > 
Sir: — Your  note  of  this  morning,  has  just  been  placed  in  my  hands  by 
Gen.   Prevost.     I  will  immediately  wait  upon  the  author  of  the  articles 
alluded  to,  who  will  cheerfully  and  promptly,  no  doubt,  assume  all  proper 
responsibility  in  this  aifair.    I  will  embrace  the  earliest  opportunity,  after 
an  interview  with  him,  of  communicating  further  with  your  friend,  Gen.  P. 
Very  respectfully, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 
HssBT  D.  Gilpin,  Esq. 

•Error  in  the  original. 
10 


146 

No.  3. 

iKauinER  Office, 
Feb.  15,  1835. 

Dear  Sir: — Immediately  after  you  left  me  this  morning,  I  called  upon 
the  author  of  Aristides;  handed  him  Mr.  Gilpin's  note,  also  a  copy  of  my 
reply  to  it.  At  3  o'clock,  he  called  upon  me  with  the  original  of  the  en- 
closed, which  I  hasten  to  communicate  to  you. 

Very  truly, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 
Gen.  A.  M.  Fbsyost. 


No.  4. 
(  C  o  PT  :  ) 

Fhiladeuhia,  February  15,  1835. 
To  R.  MoBHis,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir:  I  have  read  and  refiected  upon  the  papers  you  have  sent  roe, 
namely,  a  letter  from  H.  D.  Gilpin  to  you,  demanding  the  author  of  cer- 
tain essays  in  the  Inquirer,  and  a  copy  of  your  answer. 

I  have  been  engaged,  and  yet  am,  in  the  discussion  of  a  great  public 
question,  involving  the  conduct  of  important  public  functionaries.  That 
conduct  1  have  spoken  of,  freely,  but  in  no  instance  have  I  placed  it  in  a 
light  which  admitted  facts,  or  official  documents,  would  not  justify.  I  have 
yet  to  learn  that  a  free  exercise  of  the  right  of  a  citizen  to  examine  the 
conduct  of  public  officers  creates  a  personal  responsibility  to  every  indi- 
vidual officer  who  may  find  himself  incommoded  by  the  exposure.  Such, 
from  the  tone  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  note,  and  the  channel  by  which  it  reached 
you,  I  take  to  be  the  responsibility  which  he  contemplates.  It  is  one,  that 
!  must,  at  present,  decline. 

I  have  said  in  No.  15  of  my  essays,  that  "nothing  shall  turn  me  aside" 
from  the  prosecution  of  my  plan  for  exposing  to  the  public  the  calumnies 
against  the  Bank.  But  when  the  series  shall  be  completed,  my  position 
will  be  changed,  and  I  shall  be  willing  to  waive  the  ground  taken  in  the 
first  part  of  this  letter;  upon  one  indispensable  condition. 

I  consider  the  three  individuals,  namely,  H.  D.  Gilpin,  J.  T.  Sullivan, 
and  Peter  Wager,  as  jointly  referred  to  in  my  essays,  and  so  blended  to- 
gether, by  the  very  nature  of  their  own  acts,  that  they  cannot  be  severed, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  decide  what  cause  of  offence  may  have  been 
given  to  either,  separately.  It  follows  that  I  cannot  recognize  the  sepa- 
rate right  of  either,  to  personal  satisfaction.  If,  however,  these  three 
persons  will  sign  a  paper,  pledging  themselves,  after  the  conclusion  of 
these  essays  (which  will  be  within  two  weeks)  jointly  to  call  upon  me  for 
the  same  sort  of  satisfaction  which  the  tone  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  note,  and  the 
channel  by  which  it  was  delivered,  authorize  me  to  infer  he  contemplates, 
I  hereby  authorize  you,  on  the  receipt  of  such  paper,  to  give  up  my  name.  I 
pledge  myself  upon  the  receipt  of  such  a  joint  invitation,  promptly  to  ac- 


147 

cept  it,  and  to  render  satisfaction  to  each,  and  in  order,  to  be  determined 
by  lot. 

1  have  the  honour  to  be. 

With  great  respect,  &c. 

ARISTIDES. 
You  are  especially  enjoined  to  keep  this  original,  and  tender  to  Gen. 
Prevost  a  true  copy  of  it. 


No.  5. 
Dear  Sir: — ^I  have  carefully  read  the  copy  of  your  correspondent's  note, 
which  you  put  in  my  hands  at  5  o'clock  this  afternoon. 

It  conveys  no  answer  to  the  demand  of  Mr.  Gilpin,  and  my  confidence 
in  your  own  character  and  sense  of  justice,  leads  me  to  expect  such  a 
prompt  and  explicit  communication  on  the  subject  of  that  demand,  as  a 
man  of  honour  should  give  and  can  alone  consent  to  receive. 
I  am  respectfully  yours, 

A.  M.  PREVOST, 
Robert  Morris,  Esq.  Feb.  14,  6,  P.  M.  1835. 


No.  6. 

PfliLABEtPHiA,  Feb.  16,  1835. 
Dear  Sir: — "Aristides"  declines  authorizing  me  to  give  up  his  name 
for  the  present.  I  hold  the  subject  under  consideration — will  immediately 
consult  a  friend,  as  to  the  course  it  becomes  me  to  pursue  under  the  cir- 
cumstances, and  inform  you  of  the  result  of  the  conference  at  the  earliest 
opportunity. 

Very  respectfully, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 
Gen.  A.  M.  Pbeyost. 


No.  r. 

PHiLADELPHrA,  16th  Feb.  1835,  II,  A.  M. 
Dear  Sir: — 1  have  received  your  note  of  this  morning,  in  reply  to  mine 
of  Saturday  evening.  Mr.  Gilpin  specially  directs  me  to  say,  that  he  con- 
siders the  evasive  course  of  your  correspondent  as  pitifally  shuffling  as  his 
libels  are  false.  He  still  looks  to  you  for  his  name,  and  after  the  delay 
which  has  already  occurred,  I  have  a  right  to  expect  your  answer,  which 
cannot  reach  me  a  moment  too  soon,  as  on  such  a  subject,  protracted  post- 
ponement is  inadmissible. 

Respectfully  yours, 

A.  M.  PREVOST. 
Robert  Mobbis,  Esq. 


148 

No.  8. 

Tdesbat,  17  Feb.  1835,  10,  A.  M. 
Sir: — I  have  waited  three  entire  days  for  a  reply  to  my  just  demand  on 
your  correspondent,  who  assumes  and  disgraces  the  name  of  Aristides.  I 
believe  further  effort  to  be  vain  with  this  concealed  and  dishonourable 
slanderer.  I  shall,  however,  wait  until  four  o'clock  this  afternoon.  If  he 
still  evades  my  demand,  I  shall  take  such  course  as  the  circumstances 
require. 

Your  ob't  serv't. 

H.  D.  GILPIN. 
RoBEBT  MoBRis,  Esq. 

Editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Inquirer. 


No.  9. 

Philadelphia,  Feb.  17,  1835. 

Dear  Sir: — I  regret  that  any  further  delay  should  occur  in  relation  to  the 
author  of  "  Aristides."  I  am  anxious  to  act  in  this  affair  as  becomes  my 
character  as  the  editor  of  a  public  journal,  and  at  the  same  time,  with  due 
consideration  for  the  rights  of  all  parties  concerned.  Unwilling  to  trust 
altogether  to  my  own  judgment  in  a  question  of  considerable  delicacy,  I 
referred  the  whole  matter  to  the  decision  of  two  highly  respectable  gen- 
tlemen of  this  city.  They  read  the  articles  complained  of,  together  with 
the  correspondence  that  has  grown  out  of  them,  yesterday  afternoon,  and 
unable  to  agree  in  opinion,  called  in  the  counsel  of  a  third  person.  The 
three  will  meet  together  at  ten  o'clock  this  morning,  and  I  will  hasten  to 
communicate  to  you  their  decision,  which  will  also  he  mine,  the  moment  it 
is  communicated  to  me. 

Respectfully, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 

Gen,  Pkevost. 


No.  10. 

Philadelphia,  Feb.  17,  1835. 

Dear  Sir: — After  the  receipt  of  your  letter  of  Saturday,  announcing  that 
the  answer  of  "Aristides"  (of  which  I  handed  you  a  copy)  was  unsatisfac- 
tory, I  had  a  further  interview  with  that  individual.  In  the  course  of  the 
same  day,  I  received  from  him  a  note,  at  the  close  of  which  he  gave  his 
free  consent  to  the  surrender  of  his  name,  at  the  expiration  of  a  certain 
period,  provided  "  I  should  then  think  it  necessary  or  proper  to  do  so." 

This  answer  of  course  threw  upon  me  the  responsibility  of  deciding 
whether,  in  such  circumstances,  I  ought,  as  the  conductor  of  a  public 
press,  to  give  up  the  name  of  my  correspondent.  It  is  proper  here  to  say, 
that  in  all  my  intercourse  with  him,  both  before  and  since  your  application. 


149 

he  has  denied  any  motive  of  personal  enmity,  or  any  design  to  go  beyond 
the  ofRcial  character  and  conduct  of  public  agents — and  that  if  I  had  given 
to  his  articles  a  different  construction,  they  should  not  have  been  admitted 
into  the  columns  of  the  Inquirer,  as  will  be  seen  on  reference  to  the  edito- 
rial paragraph  with  which  the  first  essay  was  introduced. 

Whether  a  writer  avowing  such  motives,  and  discussing  a  subject  mani- 
festly  proper  for  public  examination,  ought  voluntarily  to  leave  his  con- 
cealment, and  present  himself  as  a  mark  for  j)ersonal  assault;  and  whether, 
as  an  editor,  with  or  tvithout  his  consent,  I  sliould  place  him  in  that  predica- 
ment, are  questions  of  such  delicacy  and  moment,  that  I  would  not  decide 
them,  without  ample  time  for  reflection,  and  the  aid  of  the  best  advice 
within  my  reach.  They  involve  the  rights  and  independence  of  the  press, 
both  of  which  I  am  bound,  as  a  citizen  and  a  professional  man,  to  protect, 
so  long  as  they  may  not  interfere  with  the  rights  and  just  demands  of 
others.  They  involve  the  sanctity  of  the  relation  between  editors  and 
correspondents,  which  being  impaired,  the  press  must  lose  its  just  influence 
with  the  community.  To  the  time  thus  necessarily  devoted  to  reflection 
and  counsel,  you  are  to  attribute  the  delay  of  which  you  complain. 

That  the  whole  matter  might  be  brought  before  those  whom  I  deemed 
it  proper  to  counsel,  and  whose  names  are  at  your  service,  if  required,  the 
following  queries  were  propounded  to  them,  by  me: — 

"  Query  1 .  Aristides  having  distinctly  averred  that  in  the  papers  com- 
plained of,  he  meant  to  speak  of  the  official  acts  of  the  Government  Direc. 
tors — that  he  has  not  referred  to  their  private  character,  nor  designed  to 
implicate  that  character  beyond  what  was  Inseparable  from  a  free  investi- 
gation of  their  public  conduct, — Is  he  bound  to  authorize  the  surrender 
of  his  name  upon  the  demand  of  one  of  the  individuals  whose  public  con- 
duct is  thus  criticised?" 

"  Query  2.  Should  Mr.  Morris  give  up  the  name  upon  a  similar  applica- 
tion?" 

Upon  both  the  points  thus  submitted,  my  friends  have  answered  In  the 
negative.  I  therefore  feel  it  my  duty,  very  respectfully  to  decline  furnish- 
ing you  with  the  name  demanded. 

The  decision  of  my  friends  has  been  given  on  the  ground  that  the  subject 
of  the  articles  being  unquestionably  a  proper  one  for  public  discussion, 
and  the  writer  having  disclaimed  allusion  to  any  thing  but  pubhc  and  official 
acts,  (of  which  every  citizen  has  a  right  to  speak  and  think  as  he  pleases,) 
he  has  Incurred  no  personal  responsibility,  and  I,  therefore,  would  do  wrong 
to  him,  to  the  community,  and  to  the  profession  of  which  I  am  a  member, 
by  any  act  tending  to  alter  his  position. 

Very  respectfully, 

ROBERT  MORRIS. 

Gen.  A.  M.  Prevost. 


150 

To  the  foregoing,  Aristides  thus  replied: 

Philabelpbia,  February  23»  183  . 
To  R.  Morris,  Esq.  Editor  of  the  Pennsylvania  Inquirer, 

Sir:  I  find  in  the  United  States  Gazette  of  this  morning,  a  further  com- 
munication from  H.  D.  Gilpin,  alleging  that  a  certain  correspondence, 
(which  appeared  in  your  paper  of  Saturday  last)  had  been  mutilated  by 
me,  and  professing  to  give  *'a  complete  copy"  to  the  public.  On  a  com- 
parison of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  "complete  copy"  with  the  correspondence  pub- 
lished by  me,  as  above  stated,  it  will  be*  seen  that  his  additions  consist  of 
five  or  six  unimportant  notes  between  him  and  yourself,  with  which  I  had 
no  concern;  which  throw  no  light  on  the  question  before  the  public,  and 
several  of  which  grew  out  of  H.  D.  Gilpin's  inability  to  be  calm  and  patient 
under  a  reasonable  delay,  the  cause  of  which  you  explain  in  your  letter  to 
General  Prevost.  It  will  be  seen,  too,  that  my  communication  in  the  In- 
quirer, did  not  profess  to  give  all  the  correspondence,  but  only  so  much 
M  was  necessary  to  explain  the  case.  Whether  I  did  so,  or  not,  I  cheer- 
fully leave  to  the  public  to  decide. 

But  in  H.  D.  Gilpin's  communication  of  this  morning  he  does  promise 
*a  complete  copy'  of  all  the  correspondence.  Let  the  public  judge  of  his 
candor  and  love  of  justice,  from  the  fact,  that,  in  his  'complete  copy,'  my 
letter  to  you  of  the  15th  February,  (authorizing  you  freely  to  give  up  my 
name,  if  you  thought  it  proper  and  right  to  do  so,)  does  not  appear!  That 
letter,  which  was  published  in  your  paper  of  Saturday,  and  which  H.  D., 
Gilpin  must  have  seen,  and  which  is  indispensable  to  a  right  understanding 
of  the  case,  is  suppressed  by  H.  D.  Gilpin,  at  the  very  moment  when  he 
is  professing  to  lay  the  whole  correspondence  before  the  public,  and  is 
charging  me  with  mutilation,  because,  forsooth,  I  deemed  it  of  no  import- 
ance to  let  the  public  see  how  much  he  fretted  and  foamed,  whilst  you 
were  (after  the  receipt  of  my  letter)  deliberating  upon  a  reply;  the  very 
cause  of  which  delay,  you  explain  in  your  letter  to  Gen.  Prevost. 

I  forbear  comment  upon  a  fact  that  speaks  for  itself;  and  only  ask  you, 
in  conclusion,  to  republish  my  letter  to  you  of  the  15th  inst.as  referred  to. 

ARISTIDES. 

Philadelphia,  February  15,  1835. 
To  R.  MoRBis,  Esq. 

Dear  Sir: — I  will  not  permit  any  occurrence  to  drive  me  from  my  pur- 
pose of  exposing  the  calumnies  against  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  I 
do  not  mean  to  be  shot  off,  on  account  of  my  labours  to  defend  truth  and 
justice,  at  least,  yet  awhile.  I  therefore  prohibit  the  annunciation  of  the 
name  of  the  writer  of  "Aristides,"  to  the  party  "demanding"  it,  or  to  any 
other,  until  I  shall  have  concluded  the  essays.  These  being  finished,  you 
have  my  free  consent  to  give  up  my  name  to  General  Prevost,  if  you  deem 
it  necessary,  or  proper  to  do  so. 

I  am  yours.  Sec. 

ARISTIDES. 


151  :^    • 

(j;j*The  Editor  of  the  United  States  Gazette  very  kindly  essayed  to  account 
for  Mr.  Gilpin's  omission  of  the  15th  February,  in  his  "complete  copy"  of 
the  correspondence,  by  saying  Mr.  Gilpin  did  not,  and  could  not,  have 
known  of  that  letter.  But  the  public  saw  differently — and  that  the  kind- 
ness of  the  Editor  of  the  United  States  Gazette,  or  some  other  feeling, 
led  him  astray,  since  the  very  paper  which  Mr.  Gilpin  asserted  to  furnish 
only  a  mutilated  copy  of  the  correspondence,  contained  that  very  letter. 
He  therefore  must  have  seen  it.  The  publishera  have  no  other  object  in 
this  note  but  to  put  the  matter  in  its  true  light. 


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